The Labour Party yesterday accused the government of failing the national interest, and Minister Austin Gatt of misleading Parliament.

At issue is a tract of land at Qawra costing Lm10m on the open market.

Labour deputy leader Charles Mangion told a news conference that in May last year, the government entered into an agreement with the company Tecom which led to the privatisation of the Maltese telecommunications provider, Maltacom.

Dr Mangion said that according to this agreement, the government had, within six months, to present a resolution in Parliament so that Tecom would be given a legal title to a number of Maltacom exchanges while on their part, Tecom would transfer land in Qawra to the government. The land was 12,640 square metres in area and touched on four roads.

Dr Mangion said that when, at the end of May, the Labour Party newspaper KullHadd claimed that the privatisation of Maltacom meant that Tecom had been given this tract of land, Minister Gatt accused the newspaper of lying and deception because in fact, the land would remain the government’s, not Maltacom’s.

In Parliament two months later, in a motion of no confidence on the minister, moved by the opposition, Dr Gatt had declared that there was an agreement for the land at Qawra to revert to the government.

Dr Mangion said that the six months laid down in the agreement, during which the government had to present its resolution in Parliament, had long passed but no resolution was moved. This meant that the title to the land in Qawra today still lay with Maltacom, a private company. So much so, he added, that Maltacom chairman Sonny Portelli last October said the land now belonged to Tecom and Tecom had no intention of disposing of it.

Dr Mangion said the government had to give many explanations about this land.

And it was not acceptable for Dr Gatt to declare in Parliament, with the support of the Prime Minister and the Nationalist parliamentary group, that the land would revert to the government when in fact this had not taken place and the land still belonged to Maltacom.

Dr Mangion wondered if the government was so incompetent as to not observe the contractual obligations it entered into in the national interest.

He asked what were the legal implications of the government’s failure to present its resolution, and if the government had lost the right to re-possess the land.

Dr Mangion said the Prime Minister and Dr Gatt should explain why the necessary resolution was not presented to Parliament.

The Labour Party, he added, was expecting a full explanation and on the basis of such explanation, the Labour Party was prepared, in the national interest, to do all that was allowed under the law.

Ministry rebuts MLP’s claims

In a statement issued last night, the Ministry for Investment, Industry and Information technology rebutted the claims made by the Malta Labour Party.

The ministry said that during discussions with the new owners and majority shareholders in Maltacom, it was clearly agreed that:

a) Maltacom will pass on to the government the land in Qawra that was listed in its books at the time the contract was signed;

b) In return, the government will transfer to Maltacom all the land on which Maltacom already had its facilities and offices and over which, up to the date of the contract, it did not have any legal rights.

The ministry said that the agreement on the transfer of shares, which was laid on the Table of the House of Representatives, called on the new majority shareholders of Maltacom to seek the approval of the Board of Directors to enter into a contract for the exchange of the land in Qawra in return for the other properties. It had been agreed that this was to be done by 17 November 2006.

Since Tecom Investments had failed to achieve this consensus, on 17 November the government submitted a judicial letter to protect its interests in this matter.

The ministry said that Tecom claimed it had not yet entered into the agreement because the notarial acts to verify the relevant titles of the government lands in question were still under way.

However, the ministry said, the government will not honour its part of the agreement before Tecom honours its part as well.

Therefore, the government is holding on to the lands and properties on which Maltacom offices and facilities are built and on which, up to the date of the agreement, the company did not have any legal rights of possession.

In this context, the government has taken all the necessary measures to protect the national interest.

The ministry said that this matter touched upon legal and contractual issues.

Therefore, the ministry said it is no wonder that the government is very disappointed by the opposition’s attitude on this case, which is seeking to take political advantage from this legal issue.

It is clear that the opposition is not motivated by a scrutiny of public finances but by implying that at some point during the transfer of Maltacom’s shares, the ministry gave misleading information to the public or in Parliament.