Further complicating the conflict of interest of the Chairperson of Bank of Valletta’s risk committee, Robert Suban, with his role as Audit committee and board member of Malita Investments, Excel Investments Holdings also banks with Bank of Valletta. Excel Investments Holdings is the parent company of Excel Housing, which won a €27.2 million tender from the Housing Authority. Social Housing Minister Roderick Galdes is being accused of receiving a bribe via a penthouse in Gozo by the owners of Excel Holdings.
The owners of Excel Investments are Joseph Portelli, Mark Agius, and Daniel Refalo. The Opposition Leader is demanding Roderick Galdes to resign.
Robert Suban is involved in a spaghetti monster of risk.
The role of the risk committee should have been responsible to assess and warn the bank of extensive political risk and conflicts of interests of the clients in its business, but Robert Suban seems to have been strategically placed in multiple conflicting roles exactly for the opposite reason. His multiple roles are conflicting with one other and only serve to facilitate and cover-up the potential ongoing corrupt business dealings, which in this case may be going through the bank.
Malita Investments currently faces a liquidity crisis and needs a new injection of capital to keep running. This bizarre set-up of a company that holds both government social housing and high-value property assets of the government is listed publicly on the stock exchange. Supposedly, the government should also be aware of the risk that its own public companies carry when these are listed in a public market.
Malita Investments is a train-wreck riddled with corruption, and the government is trying to keep a lid on this disaster instead of being transparent about it and ensuring a reform that would address the structural crisis of the public company. Proper reform of the company won’t come along if the people who were supposed to avoid this disaster, such as Robert Suban, remain on the company’s board.
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