The Standards Committee on Thursday published the report compiled by the Standards Commissioner which found that former parliamentary secretary Michael Farrugia breached ethics by giving the wrong information on how Mriehel was to become a zone where high-rise buildings could be constructed.

The committee received the report from Standards Commissioner Joseph Azzopardi on Tuesday. The Committee was asked to look into a report that was compiled by the Standards Commissioner, Joseph Azzopardi, about allegations concerning Labour MP Michael Farrugia and his links with Yorgen Fenech, who stands accused of masterminding the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

During the committee meeting, the members agreed to publish the report and hold further sessions to evaluate the findings before a decision is taken. The report was published on the Standards Commissioner’s website.

The investigation was requested by independent candidate Arnold Cassola back in 2020, after comments Farrugia had given Times of Malta.

Farrugia had lied to journalist Jacob Borg that he had never met Fenech at Castille, Cassola said in a statement Tuesday.

Once he had been shown the Castille visitors' register, Farrugia had changed his version, saying he had a meeting with Fenech, but it did not concern the Mriehel towers.

Cassola contended that Farrugia had also lied when he said that it was an evaluation committee on the public consultation into sites for high rise buildings that took the decision on the Mrieħel project. Mrieħel was not proposed as a site for high-rises. 

Farrugia had also lied when he claimed he had no access to the committee's documentation. The document was easily accessible, Cassola said.

On the day of the meeting with Fenech, Farrugia – who in 2014 was politically responsible for planning - had written to the Planning Authority to include Mrieħel as a high-rise zone as part of a new policy. Fenech’s family company had benefitted from this and went on to build the Quad Towers in partnership with the Gasan Group.

The Standards Commissioner exonerated Farrugia from the claims he lied about his meeting with Fenech but found he had given the newspaper wrong information as to how the recommendation for Mrieħel to be included as a high-rise zone came to be.

Farrugia had told the Times this had happened after a recommendation by a committee evaluating public feedback, but no reference had been made to Mrieħel by this committee.

However, Farrugia is now insisting there were two committees – the committee evaluating public feedback and an inter-ministerial committee that discussed government policy direction. Farrugia said he had been referring to the latter committee and in a letter to MPs on Thursday said he was willing to testify to this when he is called to give his side of the story before them.