It’s too much work to be transparent, Lands Authority claims

The Lands Authority is insisting that it cannot provide information on the contracts and direct orders it is forking out as it is too much work and “will stall the internal workings of the Authority”.

The bizarre statement follows a Freedom of Information (FOI) request from The Shift as part of an ongoing investigation into claims of abuse of public funds and collusion in how the Lands Authority (LA) has been granting direct contracts to a particular company.

The LA, in response to our requests, has told the Information and Data Protection Commissioner it would be impossible to provide the information requested as it would place too much of a strain on its resources.

Instead, it accused The Shift of “abusing” FOI legislation and embarking on a “fishing expedition”.

For almost a year, The Shift has been waiting for the LA to provide a copy of framework contracts it entered into with several companies in relation to the execution of structural and other repair works at government properties, and for a list of payments made for the contracts.

The FOIs filed by The Shift were necessary following continuous refusals by LA Chairman John Vassallo and its CEO Robert Vella to address several questions on the topic.

Following the refusal to provide the information requested, The Shift asked the Data Protection Commissioner to intervene and force the Lands Authority to abide by the law.

Still, the LA is having none of it and has now sent a letter to the Information and Data Protection Commissioner in which it insists it should not be made to provide the information.

According to the Authority, which falls under the political remit of Minister Silvio Schembri, information on its direct orders and other contracts need to be kept under lock and key “in light of the fact that the Authority might have been granted advantageous prices when compared to how various companies charge third parties and divulging the prices might be counterproductive”.

Also, according to the LA, retrieving such information requires too much work and would “stall the internal workings of the Authority”.

Turning its guns on The Shift for having had the audacity to ask the Authority to be accountable and transparent, it stated, “One cannot use the law to put undue strain on the internal workings of a public entity such as the Lands Authority [and] not to use it as a fishing trip to the whim of the applicant [The Shift].

“The Authority cannot emphasise enough the fact that this request, if it had to be acceded to, will only be a tool in the hands of speculators to exploit said information to third parties,” it insisted.

The Shift is very reliably informed that in recent years, these framework contracts were the source of a multitude of abuses in the way in which they were used to distribute work and public funds to well-connected contractors.

Last July, The Shift reported how the owner of a petrol station in Gzira was controversially given permission by the LA to relocate to the locality’s last remaining public garden. This was just one of LA’s multitude of direct orders and contracts issued in recent years and which The Shift is enquiring about.

The Labour-led Gzira local council is opposing the LA’s decision.

Simon Muscat, the owner of the Manuel Island Service Station Ltd, is also a shareholder in Cubed Trunkey Projects Ltd.

The latter was given numerous direct orders over the past years by the Authority including for the refurbishment of the Auberge De Beviere – the LA’s headquarters in Valletta.

The contracts were awarded to Muscat when the Authority had been under the leadership of James Piscopo, a close friend and at the time the Authority’s CEO.

The Authority has so far refused to say how many contracts were given to Muscat’s company over the past years and how much his company was paid.

Sources at the LA told The Shift that the Authority will resist giving such information as some it its own officials may end up exposed in various irregularities.