Parliamentary Secretary for Social Housing Roderick Galdes does not believe that political responsibility is something that is tied to the social housing bribery case.
Last Sunday, The Malta Independent on Sunday reported that Charles Spiteri, who was a politically appointed person and had been seconded from the Office of the Prime Minister to the Parliamentary Secretariat for Social Accommodation after the June general election, requested bribes from people who wanted to apply for social housing.
The Malta Independent questioned Galdes during a visit to a construction site in Birkirkara earmarked for a social accommodation development.
Galdes said that he found out about the situation last Thursday. This newsroom asked the Parliamentary Secretary who will carry political responsibility for Spiteri's appointment.
"I do not think political responsibility is something related to the case, as the case is already at the police and he, as a public official, will respond to the allegations," Galdes responded. Pressed, and told that the man is a politically appointed person, appointed by someone within the Office of the Prime Minister and seconded to his Parliamentary Secretariat, and asked whether he feels there should be some form of political responsibility, he said, "he (Spiteri) carries individual responsibility himself."
Asked to confirm that it was someone else, and not him, who informed the police about the situation, Galdes said he had contact with the Deputy Prime Minister, and the Prime Minister.
He said that with the information they had relating to the case they took a decision and the necessary advice to suspend the man in question and they passed on all the information to the police.
Asked whether he believes the police should go after the persons who paid the alleged bribes, he said the police are doing their job and he will not interfere in the police process. He said that he passed on all information to the authorities involved. Asked whether this is the only bribery case, he said that he only knows of this alleged bribery case, and that it does not seem the person in question was ever involved in the allocation process, adding that these are done through a transparent process by the Housing Authority, and that no ministry employees or officials like the man in question are involved.
This newsroom previously published news articles reading that Spiteri used his position in the Office of Parliamentary Secretary Roderick Galdes to ask for kickbacks of between €400 and €600 per case.
According to police sources, Spiteri had been on the take since he assumed his new position at the Parliamentary Secretariat for Social Accommodation, which falls under the remit of Family, Children's Rights and Social Solidarity Minister Michael Falzon, in June.
Sources close to the police had informed this newsroom that Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne handed over a recording of Spiteri asking for money to help someone apply for social housing to the police.
from The Malta Independent http://ift.tt/2E7R73L
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