Michael Farrugia plucked Johann Buttigieg from the wilderness to lie for him before the Standards Commissioner. Former Minister Farrugia was facing accusations of lying. Farrugia had met Yorgen Fenech in Castille, and immediately ordered a change in policy that allowed Yorgen Fenech to build the Mriehel Quad towers. Farrugia was caught. The press asked him about his abusive intervention. Farrugia lied and the Standards Commissioner was asked to investigate.
To save his skin Farrugia called on Johann Buttigieg who’s been doing the dirty work of Labour’s grandees for years. He showed his true worth when on Joseph Muscat’s verbal instructions he personally gave Konrad Mizzi a €90,000 consultancy, two weeks after Mizzi resigned in disgrace.
Buttigieg was a MEPA case officer until 2013 when his friend Joseph Muscat catapulted him into the role of MEPA CEO. Within a year he became Executive Chairman and his pay package increased to over €95,000 euro. Buttigieg stayed on at the Planning Authority for six years, repaying Muscat (https://theshiftnews.com/2020/11/13/nao-confirms-planning-authoritys-blunder-over-direct-order-awarded-to-labour-pollster/) for his unmerited post, with religious loyalty.
While PA chairman, Buttigieg invited Yorgen Fenech to “do business together whenever you want” over Whatsapp. He advised Fenech which properties to pinch from Joseph Portelli “Take the one in Qormi, opposite the post office”.
In December 2019, with no experience whatsoever, Buttigieg was made Malta Tourism Authority CEO. By April 2022 Joseph Muscat’s star was waning. And Buttigieg was kicked out.
So when Michael Farrugia called him for some more dirty work, Buttigieg couldn’t refuse. Farrugia was accused of discussing Mriehel with Fenech at that meeting. He denied it. So when the Commissioner asked him to name other attendees, Farrugia claimed that Johann Buttigieg was the only other person at that meeting and Buttigieg could confirm “whether I told the truth or not”.
On 10th May 2023, Buttigieg testified under oath before the Commissioner.
What was the subject of that meeting?, he was asked. Clearly forewarned and prepared, Buttigieg messed up anyway. “I remember that, there was a meeting with Yorgen Fenech because it was the first time I personally met Mr Fenech, again I used to hear about him but had never seen him, or met him before, and it was precisely about land reclamation, erm, projects, we had”.
According to Buttigieg, Fenech met him and Farrugia in Castille to give a presentation about land reclamation. The visitors’ log records that Fenech entered Castille at 9.27am and left at 9.53am. Even if he ran up the stairs, was ushered in immediately and quickly ran out, Fenech’s meeting couldn’t have lasted more than 20 minutes.
How is it possible to have any meaningful discussion about such a complex subject in 20 minutes? Farrugia is no land reclamation expert - he’s a family doctor with basic medical training. Neither is Johann Buttigieg whose only qualification is an Urban Planning Bachelor’s degree. Yet the Commissioner believed Buttigieg that only land reclamation was discussed.
Was any other topic discussed?, Buttigieg was asked. “No, not, not in the, the meeting with Yorgen Fenech, definitely”, he stuttered. That meeting was held 9 years before. But Buttigieg was absolutely certain.
The Commissioner asked him to elaborate. Buttigieg obliged: “There were more than 20 submissions for land reclamation proposals. Erm, and at that time in 2014, we started to see these, these land reclamation projects. We were not the adjudicating committee of these what do you call them, but obviously wanted to understand so that later if there are any technical questions from the adjudicating committee we could explain to them ourselves instead of them erm, in more detail”.
In 20 minutes, Buttigieg and Farrugia were meant to assimilate all the technical information about Fenech’s land reclamation proposal to explain to the adjudication committee experts “more detail” about such a complex subject.
Buttigieg tried to justify this nonsense. “We felt, that listen, they better explain to us, because at the end of the day, you still need to place your submission to the PA and the environmental studies be done and all other things. So it was more about the process, just in case government was going to choose one project over another”.
Who else attended that meeting? “As far as I know, only I, erm and the Minister, and obviously Yorgen Fenech… and he had some other people with him but don’t ask me who they were…”. The Commissioner didn’t pick this up. He simply accepted Buttigieg’s version. He didn’t call anybody else to testify - not even Fenech.
Buttigieg spilled more beans, unwittingly. “From the Parliamentary secretary’s side, it’s possible there was his secretary who was taking minutes.” He must have suddenly realised that was the wrong thing to say. “If there are any minutes, I don’t remember, but it was more an, an informal, for, an informal, formal type of, listen, explaining the project”. What a plonker.
Buttigieg left his masterpiece to the end. Farrugia falsely claimed he wasn’t the one who decided to include Mriehel. Buttigieg had to corroborate that lie. “No, I am telling you, that we realised that obviously, erm, Mriehel, that really, so , in the SPED, we in our draft, in our mind, we were saying, listen, here there should be a high tech..area, hub and at the same time, we left it out, which means, it didn’t, it didn’t make sense, it was contradictory, which means that even in our own strategy, and there we realised that listen, oi, here we’ve left this out, and so, we put it back in, we could say, in the process, but it was never removed”. Utter gibberish. False gibberish.
Then why did MEPA not send the Parliamentary secretary the revised policy with Mriehel included?, the Commissioner asked. That’s what happened, Buttigieg claimed.
Then why did Farrugia need to write to MEPA ordering the inclusion of Mriehel? Mr Buttigieg did not reply. He was clearly lying, and caught lying. He continued to lie. He claimed Farrugia’s letter was sent to Vince Cassar, the PA Chairman. But that letter was sent directly to him and addressed “Dear CEO” in Farrugia’s own handwriting.
Buttigieg ended tying himself in knots. “When he (Farrugia) asked that, listen, erm, Mriehel should become (another slip) or should remain part of the FAR policy…….don’t ask me which was the egg or the chicken”.
Johann Buttigieg typifies Labour’s choice of CEO - a dishonest, incoherent incompetent, ever ready to pervert justice for the sake of his crooked masters. He belongs in a courtroom facing perjury charges.