Minister refuses to explain €722,000 payment to his architect friend

Serious questions are being raised about how an architect closely associated with Gozo and Planning Minister Clint Camilleri was paid a sum of almost €722,000 for works related to the rebuilding of Triq l-Imġarr in Nadur, which cost double the planned budget.

The controversial project cost taxpayers €10.5 million more than planned amid claims of impropriety and mismanagement.

Investigations by The Shift show that Godwin Agius, a former work colleague of Minister Clint Camilleri, was engaged through a direct order a few weeks after Prime Minister Robert Abela made Minister Camilleri the Gozo Minister.

When Camilleri took the position, he stopped the contract initiated by former minister Justyne Caruana only to change the project’s architect. His decision led to an immense increase in costs, leading to questions about what the minister stood to gain.

The Shift is informed that Minister Camilleri selected Agius to oversee the structural infrastructure and piling works, which took years to complete.

Despite being opened for traffic last year, the road remains uncertified. Transport Malta never entertained The Shift’s request for the road’s final safety audit report required by law.

Initially, the architect’s contract, officially endorsed by John Borg, the Permanent Secretary of the Gozo Ministry, was for €380,000.

Expenditure increased to €722,000 in total payments to the architect, even though the contract for the road’s building was based on a ‘design and build’, meaning that the contractor (Gozitan Road Construction Ltd) was responsible for the road’s rebuilding.

A report by the National Audit Office published last week looked into the expenditure on the Nadur Road project, which also questioned Agius’s engagement and exorbitant payments.

“The performance guarantee in relation to the architect’s contract was obtained on 4 December 2020, nearly four months later. An extension to the foregoing only covered until 4 September 2022, although works were still ongoing in 2023. The last invoice raised by the architect for €115,032 was dated 16 October 2023,” the NAO found.

The Shift also reported alleged private works carried out by the same contractor during the road’s rebuilding in several fields beside the road. The ministry denied using public funds for these private works.

The NAO tried to establish the facts but didn’t manage due to a lack of documentation by the ministry.

“When NAO conducted a site visit in September 2023, works in the adjacent fields, including a reservoir, ramps and rubble walls, could be noted. However, considering that the BOQs (Bills of Quantity) did not include detailed explanations of where the works were actually carried out, and these were also unsupported by quantity surveyor detailed reports, the NAO could not assess whether the alleged expenses were directly financed from public funds.”

When investigating, the NAO said the photos provided by the ministry were undated and did not provide details of the project phase.

“As a result, the project execution and the billed quantities could not be verified”, the NAO said.

Minister hiding contracts and refusing answers

For years, the Gozo Minister has refused to be transparent and accountable on this Nadur road project.

Camilleri repeatedly refused to answer parliamentary questions on the architect responsible for the project.

Minister Camilleri is also resisting an order by the Data Protection Commissioner to supply a copy of all the engagement contracts and direct orders given to architect Godwin Agius.

The Shift won a Freedom of Information battle to obtain these contracts. Yet the minister refuses to abide by the order and has filed an appeal.

Following further questions raised by the NAO audit, The Shift asked Minister Camilleri to explain why Godwin Agius was engaged through direct order and to confirm that he had personally pushed for his selection.

Through his spokesman, he denied selecting Agius and said that “the expert was engaged through a negotiated procurement procedure, whereby competitive quotes were sought from qualified professionals.”

According to public procurement rules, this amounts to a direct order.

Clint Camilleri was also asked to justify the payment to the architect and explain why the project was still not certified.

The minister’s spokesman said, “all civil works carried out are certified and the main contracts on this project, were awarded before Minister Camilleri took office.”

The NAO found that the road was still uncertified, and Minister Camilleri dished out two new contracts, increasing the cost of the road from €7.9 to €18.5 million.

Who is Godwin Agius?

Architect Godwin Agius and Minister Clint Camilleri have a long history. The pair used to work at the same architectural office, Med Design, owned by former Labour Party Minister Charles Buhagiar.

Agius comes from a staunch Labour family and has been involved with the Labour Party for a long time. He also serves as a counting hall agent for the PL during the elections.

Since Labour was elected to power in 2013, Aguis has been showered with lucrative government jobs, including at Enemalta and Engineering Resources Ltd, while continuing his private practice, which received several direct orders from the government.

One of the latest is Minister Miriam Dalli’s €150,000 contract through Enemalta for the so-called Pont tas-Shell project in her Birżebbuġa constituency.

Agius further consolidated his bond with the Gozo Minister since Camilleri was made responsible for the Planning portfolio too.

Apart from the Nadur Project direct order, he was also given other road projects in Gozo while employed full-time as a senior project manager at the Gozo Regional Development Authority (GRDA), a satellite organisation of the Gozo Ministry.

Agius doesn’t reside in Gozo even though the GRDA’s offices are in Victoria, Gozo.

Earlier this year, Clint Camilleri appointed his close friend to the Executive Committee of the Planning Authority, the board that dictates what happens at the government’s permits regulator.

Agius also holds other important government positions, including chairman of Interconnect Malta, the government entity responsible for the €200 million project to lay a second interconnector with Sicily, and chairman of the construction industry licensing committee of the Building and Construction Authority.