The land expropriated from the Borg Olivier family in 1993 for the construction of the National Pool in Gzira had been expropriated by the government of the time only after the complex was built and inaugurated – a situation that effectively increased the value of the land from just over €20,000 to over €2.2 million.
Over 30 members of the Borg Olivier family, a name synonymous with the then governing Nationalist Party, were awarded over €2.2 million last Wednesday in compensation for land expropriated for the construction of the National Pool in Gzira by the courts' Land Arbitration Board, presided over by Magistrate Francesco Depasquale.
This windfall for the Borg Oliviers was down to the fact that, in a reversal of the normal practice, the land had been expropriated only after the national pool was inaugurated. As such, the tenement was considered by the Board to have been developable land at the time of its actual expropriation, as opposed to its previous designation as agricultural land.
Had the land been expropriated before the construction of the complex, as per standard practice, its value as agricultural land would have been of just over €20,000, court documents show.
Instead, since the complex had already been inaugurated and was up and running at the time of the actual expropriation order two months later, it was considered by the Board to have been developable land at the time of its expropriation, thus inflating the land's value exponentially.
The facts established by the Board and referred to in this week's ruling are that the tal-Qroqq National Pool complex, which included the 4,921 square metres of land owned by the Borg Oliviers, had been officially opened on 8 May 1993.
But, somewhat strangely, it was two months later, on 13 July 1993, that the government published its intention to expropriate the land in question.
Some 10 years later, on 14 February 2003, the Commissioner for Lands had informed the Borg Oliviers that the competent authorities were ready to pay up for the land expropriated back in 1993, and had set a value on the land of €20,387, an offer the Borg Oliviers flatly refused, and they made a counter offer of €2,282,785.
This situation, the Board heard in submissions from court experts, meant that the land, at the time of the announced intention to expropriate, was no longer agricultural land, the value of which would have been €20,380. Since the pool complex had already been built, it was valued at €2,282,785 at the end of the day by the courts because, since the pool complex had already been developed and inaugurated, it was classified as developable land.
The sleight of hand appears to be all too obvious, and 23 years later the Borg Olivier heirs received their windfall this week.
But given the stark discrepancy between the €20,000 the Commissioner for Lands had originally wanted to pay for the land, based on its previous agricultural designation, and the €2.2 million awarded by the courts by virtue of the fact that its designation had been changed to developable land, it would not be unimaginable for the Commissioner for Lands to appeal the decision.
The Board ruled this week that the land in question was to be considered as developable land; that the date on which possession of the land was transferred to the government was to be established as 8 May 1993 – the date of the pool complex's inauguration; that the compensation was to be of €2,282,785; and that interest on the amount is to be payable as from 8 May 1993.
Read the report by Land Arbitration Board
from The Malta Independent http://ift.tt/23BvAoA
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