Peter Agius reports Sofia developer to OLAF for alleged fraud
PN MEP candidate Peter Agius has reported the developer behind the site which collapsed and claimed the life of Jean Paul Sofia in Corradino to the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) over a separate situation.
“Today I filed an OLAF report on the alleged fraud of €360,000 in EU funding for a supposed goat farm by Kurt
Buhagiar used to construct a villa instead,” Agius alleged.
Agius claims that between 2017 and 2022, Buhagiar benefitted from EU funding on three occasions, “getting the maximum allowable limit on every application in 2017, 2019 and 2022, netting over €360,000.”
He said that the first application was for the construction of a goat farm in Naxxar in 2017, netting €150,000, “then for an upgrade netting €146,000 in 2019 and then for the construction of rubble walls around the property for which the beneficiary netted another €62,000.”
The MEP candidate alleged that the developer had good contacts with INDIS and the
Planning Authority, and got “maximum funding in three separate occasions.”
“There are hundreds of applicants who never manage to benefit from any EU funding over years of trying in vain,” Agius said.
He said that he reported this case to the European AntiFraud Office in order for it to investigate the case and get to the bottom of it. “The Sofia inquiry conclusions, together with media reports, should have been enough for Maltese authorities to investigate. Given that we heard nothing coming from local authorities, I decided to put the case in the lap of the competent authority at the European level.”