No less than Lm10 million’s worth of investments have been written off, the Auditor General reported yesterday.

In the annual report, which was presented to Parliament yesterday, the auditor reported that, among the write-offs there were Lm2.215 million advanced to Sea Malta, Lm2.278 million advanced to Malta Spinning and Weaving, Lm1.56 million advanced to Metalfond, and Lm580,000 advanced to Interprint.

As regards the dockyard, following the dockyard law of 2003, advances to the dockyard must be borne by the government.

During 2005 the government, through the Consolidated Fund repaid Lm7.5 million but a further Lm67 million still await repayment.

No less than Lm4.99 million are owed to the court in respect of court fines, plus a further Lm1.5 million in terms of traffic and education fines. No less than Lm129,000 are still owed after 20 years.

Lm10 million of VAT is still owed for 1994, Lm72 million for 1998 and almost Lm4 million for CET (1997).

As regards local councils, the auditor reports that nine councils that registered a deficit for the financial year ending on 31 March 2005 rectified their position and reported a surplus: Zebbug, Balzan, Iklin, Kalkara, Mqabba, Nadur, Santa Lucija, Santa Venera and Ta Xbiex. Only Mgarr registered a deficit for the second year running.

Four councils recorded a negative working capital – Zebbug, Kercem, Xewkija, Mtarfa. The working capital of Kercem and Mtarfa continued to deteriorate.

The auditor then highlighted a number of common concerns and a separate list of concerns about individual councils.