The other partner in the failed Café Premier venture Neville Curmi has broken his silence on the bailout deal which saw the Auditor General criticize the government’s handling of the issue by telling The Malta Independent: “The audit report is very close to the truth,” he said.
Mr Curmi, who was Mario Camilleri’s business partner in the now defunct Cities Entertainment venture, said that he agrees with the auditor’s report and that Anthony Mifsud, the auditor general, did a very good job.
The Malta Independent asked Mr Curmi for a full interview to give his side of the story, but he stopped short of doing so, saying that he preferred to just give a short comment on the matter. His final words were: “the auditor spoke for me".
The auditor general last week criticized the government for the way the deal, which included a €210,000 brokerage fee paid to Mr Camilleri directly out of public funds, had been conducted, with the opposition saying that Prime Minister Joseph Muscat had been personally involved in the matter. Mr Camilleri had refused a €3.9 million offer which was later increased to €4.2 million. He insists that the €210,000 paid to him was repayment of a shareholder's loan, not as a commission. It also turned out that an identical offer was made by the private sector.
Mr Curmi’s comments on the report contradict what Mario Camilleri said earlier this week in other sections of the media. Mr Camilleri criticized the auditor general’s report, and said that it made him look like a criminal.
Mr Camilleri said that the business was in great financial trouble with the company seeking a €2 million loan from Banif Bank. The two directors had fallen out and were seeking to sell their 50-year lease.
Mr Camilleri admitted meeting Joseph Muscat three times before the election, but said the Cafe Premier issue was never discussed. The only time he discussed Cafe Premier with Dr Muscat was after the election in a face-to-face meeting at Castille.
He said that he had approached the Nationalist administration with a similar offer to buy back the property. He said he was put in touch with then Tourism Minister Mario de Marco but the matter was never discussed because the election was close.
Mr Camilleri said there had also been an attempt for him to buy out his business partner at the time negotiations were taking place with the government. He said he had plans to transform the property into a wedding hall as the site had potential to be the only such venue in Malta, capable of catering for between 200 and 300 guests. The attempts failed.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said that the deal was closed just weeks into the new administration’s tenure and admitted that everything was still new to the PL government. He said that the government had learned a procedural lesson and that the Government Property Department should have been more involved in the deal.