Gerald Fenech
Fgura’s Labour mayor Darren Marmara stands accused by his own councillors of being ‘in cahoots’ with the Nationalist Party, after a number of allegations of financial impropriety and corruption came to light.
According to Labour councillor Byron Camilleri, the Fgura mayor was threatened before a vote on a motion to reply to allegations which appeared in the Nationalist Party weekly ‘Il-Mument’.
Nationalist councillor and the Prime Minister’s private secretary Charles Bonello allegedly told Marmara’ that if he voted in line with the Labour councillors, he would ‘stir up the muck’ on him (Ivvota maghhom ha naqlalek il-hama).
Camilleri and fellow Labour Party councillors claim their mayor has deliberately leaked information to the Nationalist media through Bonello who allegedly has a hold over Marmara.
Marmara actually voted in line with the PN councillors to defeat the motion, together with his close confidante Pierre Dalli – also known as ‘It-Torta’.
When asked to comment about Bonello’s threat, Marmara claimed that this was untrue, adding that he knew who was spreading this ‘false’ information. “I have never been threatened by anyone,” he insisted.
However, the council continues to be beleaguered by bitter infighting between the Labour majority, when the motion which was being moved to denounce the leaks to the PN media was voted down apparently with Marmara’s backing.
Marmara also claims that the councillor who spoke to MaltaToday “voted against the majority” on several occasions, presumably this being one of the cases in question.
“On various occasions, the person who gave you this information actually voted against the majority. For me this is not a problem since the council can still proceed working on different projects around Fgura. Those whose intention it is to waste their time and create various allegations can continue doing so, but the majority of the councillors and myself work in good faith for the benefit of Fgura,” Marmara added.
This newspaper can reveal that the litany of financial impropriety is quite substantial and ranges from authorising illegal works in a housing estate using council funds, to the organization of a phantom folk festival which cost varied from €25,000 to €4,600.
The Fgura council offices have apparently been ransacked three times but on no occasion has the mayor’s office been touched. Marmara has also authorised mysterious promotions and held various meetings with contractors behind the council’s back.
An Interim Operations Review by the council’s Executive Secretary also lists several improprieties, including the opening of two fixed accounts amounting to €600,000 which have been opened on behalf of the council with no record of the said deposits in the council minutes. MEPA is also chasing the council for the utilisation of urban development funds with no reply and patching works on several roads have also not been recorded in the council minutes.
Asked to comment about the report, Marmara was evasive, instead choosing to focus on the work being done by the council which he claims has been agreed upon.
“The scope of the interim report was to point out some pending decisions and to plan the way forward for our work. In the last Council meeting, this issue was discussed and the Council found nothing wrong and thus we are to proceed as agreed. In fact we decided to change pavements and asphalt Triq l-Iskola and Triq in-Nigem, to erect a new monument of Fgura Emblem in the Tip Top roundabout, to participate in various schemes both locally and on a EU level, to enlarge the library, to enclose the playing field for more security and several other tasks. We have lots of work to do and this after constructing two other roads – Triq Peprin and Sant’Antnin – as well as changing the main road’s water culverts, supported our NGO’s by printing a leaflet for Good Friday to market their exhibitions and so on. This was done now, within one year after the election. This is the way I look at my Council... in a positive way”.
Asked on a recent council meeting which was postponed even though there was a quorum, Marmara insisted that there was no need to postpone any meeting if there was a quorum. “I thing they gave you wrong information” were his words.
However Byron Camilleri’s version of events is different as he insists that as the meeting was about to start, the mayor found some excuse to leave, thus having to postpone the meeting even though there were actually six Labour councillors present.
“As we were about to start the meeting at around 6:35pm, there were six Labour councillors present. However as the meeting started, the first and only few sentences that the mayor said were that he couldn’t stay any longer and that he had to leave. As the mayor left the room, this resulted in the meeting not reaching a quorum and therefore the meeting had to be adjourned to a later date. What amazes me is that none of the PN local Councillors attended this meeting”.
Camilleri confirmed that a similar situation in another meeting on 17 February when four Labour councillors had to spend half an hour waiting for the Mayor, another Labour councillor and the three PN councillors to come but none of them showed up.
“This resulted in the meeting not reaching a quorum and therefore the meeting was adjourned to a later date. I don’t know if they planned this beforehand altogether, but that is what someone with average reasoning tends to believe. However, I sincerely hope that this is not the case”,,he concluded. gfenech@mediatoday.com.mt
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