Fortina Group on Tuesday welcomed the parliamentary committee's unanimous vote, which the group said "vindicated its position that valuations carried out by the auditors and the National Audit Office on its Sliema property lacked legal standing".

"These valuations are not merely technically invalid, they are fundamentally flawed. Not only, these valuations have inflicted immediate, measurable, and substantial reputational damage on the Group," a Fortina spokesperson said.

On Monday, a Parliamentary Committee ruled that previous assessments were either incomplete or inconsistent with the authority's legal framework and ordered a fresh evaluation by the Lands Authority.

Fotina's statement on Tuesday said the National Audit Office Committee unanimously ruled - confirmed and agreed by the NAO - that the audit firm's €23 million valuation breached the mandatory provisions of the Government Lands Act, rendering it invalid at law.

This valuation, therefore, cannot be used to determine compensation due by Fortina Group for the waiver of restrictive conditions on land it already owned.

Equally significant was the admission by NAO representatives, that the NAO's own €21 million valuation also fails to comply with the mandatory provisions of the Government Lands Act.

Despite this fundamental deficiency, the NAO inexplicably deemed this legally invalid valuation as a valid inclusion in its own report.

"Fortina treats these official acknowledgements with the utmost seriousness. The Group believes an explanation is owed as to why the NAO commissioned valuations that it knew held no legal validity. This has generated unfounded speculation and distorted public expectations to the Group's detriment without any lawful foundation," the spokesperson said.

"Fortina Group has remained silent since the NAO report was published on September 15, choosing restraint over speculation. We conducted a detailed technical analysis of the report's deficiencies before submitting our representations. The unanimous 5-0 vote of the parliamentary committee, now affirms our position that the valuations, which fuelled most public speculation are, in fact, 'technically invalid'."