The Palazzo Vilhena agreement was for a 'fine dining summer pop-up event' in the inner courtyard which ran for four weeks, against a rental fee of €50 per day or 8% of the total sales excluding VAT as registered on the operator's POS (point of sale), the contract reads.

The Palace in Mdina houses the Museum of Natural History, and was in the news recently when a restaurant opened. The PN had earlier been critical of the government for not publishing the contract. It had also said that Heritage Malta "is using our national heritage for commercial purposes that go beyond its obligations to promote and preserve this same heritage." The agreement was criticised given that there was no public call before the contract was signed, including by the PN's Spokesperson for Heritage Julie Zahra.

A copy of the contract was made available by Heritage Malta following a request made by The Malta Independent.

The contract was signed by the Chairman of Heritage Malta Services Ltd and the director and shareholder of Collision Catering Ltd (the organizer) and was for four weeks commencing on 19 July.

Last week, Heritage Malta said that it's commercial arm - Heritage Malta Services Ltd (which signed the contract) - has been operating since 2005 with the aim of commercialising any resources that may be commercialised. This, "in order to generate funds which are then injected back into the protection of our national cultural heritage. In the case of Vilhena Palace, Heritage Malta Services Ltd used an existing commercial contract to embark on a four-week trial (from 19th July till 14th August) to analyse the viability and monetary potential of such a restaurant."

Heritage Malta said that the aim of the initiative was also to establish whether Heritage Malta should issue a public call in this regard in future or whether it should be Heritage Malta itself that operates the initiative internally. "Such arrangements are conducted regularly, in particular with regard to private functions and events held when Heritage Malta sites are rented out. The agency does not promote such functions and neither did it promote this initiative of temporary catering at Vilhena Palace, albeit the company in charge of the catering promoted the initiative via its own channels," Heritage Malta had said.

According to the contract, all utility bills had to be paid by organizer, who also had to pay an indemnity fee of €1,500 which was to be settled upon the signing of this agreement. The indemnity fee was to cover any risks and accidental damage to the property and contents, including third party risks. This fee was only to be refunded, in part or in full, within 7 working days after the rental period concluded, after checks were made for any damage.

The Times of Malta reported Heritage Minister Owen Bonnici saying that Heritage Malta already runs sites which include restaurants that were granted the ability to operate through a public call - such as MUZA - but in the case of Palazzo Vilhena, for a month-long period of market research, it gave a contractor who already has a contract with Heritage Malta, the opportunity to sell food there, but not cook it on site. On the basis of that market research, Heritage Malta will decide whether to offer such a service in-house, or issue a concession through a public call, he said. 

Responding to questions about criticism that other businesses were irritated that they didn't have the chance to apply, he said he understands that criticism and said that Heritage Malta will, as much as possible, use public calls that lead to concessions.

PN spokesperson Julie Zahra, in a statement later in the day, said that "after the PN applied pressure on minister Bonnici to answer questions about this mysterious contract with a private operator, the minister admitted to breaching regulations that apply to public entities."

"Bonnici said that these types of arrangements occur regularly, at first, and now said that Heritage Malta conducted this as market research." She said that the PN cannot understand what market research is needed to establish whether a main site at the entrance to Mdina has major commercial potential. "If there really was a need, which does not exist, this had to be regulated through a public call, and through that we would have seen a transparent process from start to finish."

She said that the opposite happened as Heritage Malta "did not issue any public call for this market research at Palazzo Vilhena, and that is why the minister admitted to a breach of state financial regulations by a public entity that falls under his responsibility."

She asked Bonnici to state whether Heritage Malta's income was €50 per day or 8% of total sales; for information about the total sales during the contract period; for the amount Heritage Malta earned through the contract; whether Heritage Malta had to pay overtime to the Natural History Museum employees to open the site for the private operator; whether Heritage Malta will publish the results of the market research; whether the required licenses from the Tourism Authority were issued for the operation of a catering establishment in the museum, among other things.

Read the full contract here. Personal information has been redacted for data protection purposes