Still, investigators have grown more and more alarmed by decisions being made within the Planning Authority, the Building Construction Agency, Infrastructure Malta and Ministries linked to the construction sector, ranging from planning to infrastructure and even Gozo.

It’s a sentiment shared across the country with surveys showing that more than 50% of people believe that bribery and abuse of power for personal gain are widespread among officials issuing building permits 

Names of people currently being investigated must be kept under wraps pending potential prosecutions. However, some of the people at the very top of Malta’s overdevelopment spree are being looked into.

Unfortunately, investigators are already playing catch-up following years of mismanagement and inaction under the tenure of Ian Abdilla, the former Assistant Commissioner who led the now-defunct Economic Crimes Unit.

Lovin Malta is informed that the newly-formed Financial Crime Investigations Department, which has been moved out of police HQ and into its own offices, found countless investigations and inquiries linked to politicians and Malta’s business elite gathering dust with no action having been taken.

Since being reformed following the political crisis that erupted in 2019 following the rest of Yorgen Fenech in connection with the Daphne Caruana Galizia, investigators have been focused on the stack of cases that were ignored over the years. 

They are making steady progress, issuing charges against major figures like Keith Schembri and his associates, Nexia BT’s Brian Tonna and Karl Cini, among others.

Meanwhile, Fenech’s phone, which was seized by investigators following his arrest, has opened up new doors to untangling the web of corruption and trading in influence within the country.

The Malta Gaming Authority has already faced its day of reckoning with its former CEO Heathcliffe Farrugia and its former CTO Jason Farrugia having been charged. Other prosecutions are also in the pipeline, but attention will soon turn to the planning issues themselves.

Fenech allegedly has a wealth of messages linked with trading-in-influence within planning and construction. For example, messages with then-PA CEO Johann Buttigieg show that the pair enjoyed a close relationship, with Buttigieg even suggesting that the two should “do business” together.

The suggestion came during a conversation in which Fenech offered to partner with Buttigieg on a property development he was looking to take over from Joe Portelli, the Gozitan construction magnate.

He even hoped that Fenech would employ him once his tenure at the PA ended.

Buttigieg’s tenure as PA CEO was also subject to criticism as he oversaw rampant overdevelopment in the country. Under his stewardship, more than 24,000 planning applications were approved, with Malta paying the price for haphazard planning.

Their departure has not resulted in a change of perception or process when it comes to the approval of controversial projects with activists and the public still proving to be the last line of defence.

Despite the obstacles they are facing, the hope is that the current investigations lead to concrete action finally being taken against the key players abusing the system.

Do you think corruption is rife in the construction and development sector?