The Nationalist Party today published 11 contracts the government had kept under wraps which transferred several lands to Enemalta before the deal with Shanghai Electric Power was signed. This means that the Chinese state-owned company has a 33% share in all of these assets, which include lands in Ghaxaq, Marsaxlokk and the old power station in Marsa.
The contracts were also hurriedly signed two days before the government introduced two legal notices removing the need for Parliament to debate any future land transfers by Enemalta.
Speaking at a press conference this afternoon, Shadow Minister for Citizen Rights, Justice and Democracy Jason Azzopardi said Enemalta can now dispose of all of these lands without any parliamentary scrutiny.
Legal Notices 310 and 302 were published on 27 August 2014. The contracts were signed on the 25th. Dr Azzopardi said he had information that the contracts were signed in a marathon session which lasted from early morning on the 25th to the early hours of the next morning.
One of the contracts is for the sale of the Marsa Power Station by the Lands Department from Vaults Finance Ltd. On the same day, by means of another contract, the Marsa land was given back to Enemalta on a lease of 99 years. “Why does Enemalta need the land where a power station that is being dismantled for 99 years,” Dr Azzopardi asked.
Another contract saw 310,000 metres squared of lands transferred to Enemalta for the use of solar panels. The land was transferred on temporary emphyteusis for 25 years at the price of just 50 cents per square meter. “We have not yet been informed that Enemalta is in the PV panel business. Was this contract signed to make Enemalta more attractive to the Chinese?” Dr Azzopardi also asked whether this could be in breach of competition rules, seeing that private companies would not be given the same low prices to rent space for their PV panels.
The Lands Department also leased the Delimara power station site to Enemalta for 25 years and the BWSC site was leased to DR Power Generation Ltd. Another contract was for the rent of land at Delimara to Electrogas for the purchase of the gas-fired plant.
Other contracts included the sale by government-owned Petromalta Ltd to Enemed of sites at Has Saptan, Ghaxaq and Marsaxlokk terminal and a temporary emphyteusis for 65 years granting Enemalta a number of sites in Ghaxaq. This was backdated to 2004.
Another three contracts amended existing rents allowing Enemalta to dispose of the properties given to it.
The transfer of these lands to Enemalta enriched the company’s asset base at a time when the Chinese were getting cold feet. The government had not only kept these contracts hidden, raising many questions, but had also led the public to believe that Shanghai Electric had invested in the old Enemalta. The truth was that the Chinese bought a 33% stake of a company that owned many lands – thanks to these transfers. “Why have these contracts been kept hidden? In whose interest was this done?”
Dr Azzopardi said the big question was what happened to these lands after 27 August 2014, when Enemalta did not need to inform Parliament of any land transfers or sales to third parties. He said
PN Secretary General Chris Said said Joseph Muscat promised a transparent government but delivered the exact opposite. Like in the case of the Café Premier scandal, the truth had this time also come out thanks to the PN.
Being found guilty of something requisite to become PL Soldiers of steel
Dr Said also referred to yesterday’s speech by former Home Affairs Minsiter Manuel Mallia, who said he has now also become a Labour ‘Soldier of Steel.’
“Manuel Mallia did not really leave out of his own free will. He left after he was found guilty of lying by an inquiry. He was blasted by three former judges for issuing a press release that was full of lies.”
Dr Said said Manuel Mallia is the PL’s second soldier of steel – the first is Cyrus Engerer, who is serving a suspended jail sentence and was recently given an €85,000 per year Brussels job. “It seems that you have to be found guilty of something in order to become one of Muscat’s soldiers of steel.”
The PN Secretary General said some 31 public service employees were suspended because of pending criminal investigations. “What will Joseph Muscat tell these people over the fact that they have been sacked but others have been promoted?”
A long list of unpublished contracts and reports
The PN’s Shadow Minister for Social Policy, Paula Mifsud Bonnici, referred to a number of other contracts that the government had kept hidden. These include the contract with Henley and Partners on the ‘citizenship for sale’ scheme, the contracts with Shanghai Electric Power on the sale of BWSC and Enemalta, the contract with Electrogas on the new power station, the hedging agreements with SOCAR of Azerbaijan, the agreement with Barts and the contract with Autobuses de Leon. Apart from contracts, the government has failed to publish a number of inquiry reports, such as the case where charges against a man who assaulted three police officers were dropped.
“Joseph Muscat’s word does not mean anything. His government is keeping all these contracts hidden with utter disrespect to the public.” Dr Mifsud Bonnici said there was not only a lack of transparency but also a smell of corruption in the government’s secret dealings.
The contracts can be viewed by clicking the links below:
Vault Finance
Site lease
Petromal
Marsaxlokk Site and Structures
Grant PVs
Delimara site
Sale of Marsa power station
Additional sites
Miceli deed
Miceli deed correction
Miceli deed correction 2
Government says contracts are available to the public
In a statement this afternoon the government said Chris Said, Jason Azzopardi, and Paula Mifsud Bonnici, three lawyers by profession should know that the contracts they are referring to, are public deeds which have been available to the general public.
“It is becoming more evident by the day that the Opposition has not yet accepted the fact that Government has attracted the biggest foreign investment of € 320 million to our shores in the energy sector, which the previous Nationalist Government has valued at €1.
Enemalta Corporation had a leasehold with Vault Finance for the use of the Marsa Power Station site, which was entered into in 2012. Moreover, in 2012 an agreement with Vault Finance Ltd was signed wherein the conditions of acquisition for the release of the leasehold of the Marsa Power Station site from ownership of Vault Finance Ltd, including price, were pre-established in this agreement.
In preparation for the creation of Enemalta plc in August 2014 the Government, in consultation with Enemalta, availed itself of the provisions of the 2012 agreement with Vault Finance Ltd to acquire the temporary emphyteusis for the Marsa Power Station site at the pre-determined conditions of the agreement signed in 2012 . This procedure facilitated the process for transfer of assets and liabilities into the newly created Enemalta plc.
Seperately, the carve-out of the profit making Petroleum Division of Enemalta into the newly created Enemed, which is entirely owned by Government, was also announced in Parliament.
The Government’s roadmap for energy and Enemalta plc is delivering results which have been commended by the European Union and the credit rating agencies, including the recent Standard and Poors upgrade of Enemalta’s stand-alone credit rating.”
PN challenges government to publish contracts
In reaction the PN said the government had done all it could to keep these contracts hidden. This was the same government that refused to publish the Enemalta contracts before the Parliamentary debate on the subject and refused to hand over the documents to the media.
“If the government is so transparent it should immediately publish its contracts with Henley and Partners, the contracts on the sale of Enemalta and the BWSC plant, the hedging SOCAR agreement, and the contracts signed with Barts and Autobuses de Leon.