The government yesterday laid out the procedure followed in land expropriation, after the issue had been raised by the Opposition Leader.

It said various bits of land had been expropriated in Zurrieq for road widening in connection with the Xarolla project. Since 1993, the government’s Property Division had started accepting expropriation requests by public bodies only if the requests were accompanied by the compensation due to the landowners. In 2002, this was made law. As a result of this, no expropriation by presidential decree could be made at the request of the government if the decree did not also include the deposit for the compensation due.

The expropriation request for Minister Zammit’s land was made by the Public Transport Authority in 2006, and the compensation was deposited as required by law. When the compensation was deposited, the presidential decree was issued in 2007 and the compensation was paid to the owner.

There were other owners in the same road with whom the same procedure was followed. In fact, although the public authority had taken possession of the lands in question in 1989, it was only in 1994 that the formal request was made to the Department of Lands for the expropriation to be made.

The compensation amount was passed for every bit of land expropriated. The expropriation request for the last two pieces of land owned by Minister Zammit was made in April 2006, and the presidential decree, with the compensation going with it, was issued in February, 2007.

Valuation had been made by one of the architects in the pool employed by the department, and it had been published with the decree. Damages or interests at five per cent were worked out according to law.

Since 1999, Lm34 million had been paid in compensation, of which Lm19.4 million had been paid under the new system of depositing the compensation beforehand. Over 6,000 persons had benefited under the system.

The government said that between 1997 and 1998, the Labour government had paid an average compensation of Lm1 million each year. Since 1999, the Nationalist government had paid an average of Lm3.35 million each year.