Cook & Co. Ltd itself had requested the investigation by the National Audit Office “in view of very serious flaws in the handling of the lease contract,” regarding the provision of food and beverage services at the Malta Life Sciences Park, the company said.

The National Audit Office (NAO) had reviewed the request for proposals (RfP) issued by the Malta Life Sciences Park for the provision of food and beverage (F&B) services at the Malta Life Sciences Centre and the Malta Digital Hub Ltd (MDH) in November 2015. “A lease agreement was entered into between the MDH and Cook & Co Ltd in May 2016. After several years of operation, Cook & Co Ltd maintained that the RfP was fraudulent, in that the premises was not as described, giving rise to operational difficulties,” the NAO had said.

Through their lawyers Cedric Mifsud and Ian Barbara, Cook & Co Ltd has issued a right of reply regarding the reporting of the NAO report.

Full right of reply

We are instructed by Cook & Co Ltd in response to the article published on your news portal dated the 23^rd January 2024. In accordance with the terms of Article 15 of Chapter 579 of the Laws of Malta you are hereby requested to publish this letter as a right of reply.

This article follows the publication of an NAO report dated the 23^rd January 2024 titled “An audit of the contract for the provision of food and beverage services at the Malta Life Sciences Park” resulting from Cook & Co Ltd’s complaint dated the 21^st July 2020. The coverage of the NAO report in your article appears to adopt an exceptionally biased stance in favour of Malta Digital Hub Ltd (hereon referred to as ‘MDH’), Malta Enterprise, and Malta Life Sciences Park, moreover it fails to accurately reflect the pertinent findings of the report. Your reporting has failed to identify key facts which emerge from the NAO report and consequently have been totally disregarded by your media organisation. Your reporting failed to indicate the following crucial factors from the NAO report:

1. Cook & Co. Ltd itself requested the investigation by the NAO in view of very serious flaws in the handling of the lease contract;

2. The Request for Proposal (RfP) for the lease of the premises lacked detailed information on the envisaged and permitted use of the site and its infrastructural requirements, leading to concerns about the adequacy of information provided by Malta Enterprise. The NAO noted that there were considerable discrepancies between plans and the actual layout. This led to serious doubts on how any prospective food and beverage operator, including Cook & Co. Ltd, could fulfil the obligations indicated on the RfP within two months from the award notification.
3. The lease agreement failed to include assurances from MDH that the leased premises designated for a catering establishment were fit for their specific purpose. This anomaly is significant, especially considering the necessary planning and regulatory permits required for such an operation and the tight timeframe for the commencement of operations. The NAO stated that these circumstances prompted concerns about the landlord's commitment in ensuring lawful use of the premises.

4. Instances were highlighted were MDH deviated from the provisions outlined in the lease agreement, and in some cases, the agreement itself was deemed ambiguous, leading to complexities in assigning responsibility between the parties.

5. The NAO highlighted many instances whereby MDH mismanaged the whole process. One of these instances is when a planning application by the landlord was submitted in 2019 for a project that commenced in 2016. This mismanagement is corroborated by documentation and third-party statements wherein one can easily conclude that what MDH intended to achieve through the RfP and what could be done is totally different. 

6. In August 2020, Cook & Co Ltd instituted legal proceedings against MDH, being the first to do so. The objective of these proceedings was to petition the Rent Regulation Board to formally declare a breach of contract by MDH. In light of this breach, Cook & Co Ltd is seeking an official release from all contractual obligations emanating from the aforementioned contract. Furthermore, Cook & Co Ltd is seeking redress in the form of damages linked to the 2016 lease agreement, consequent to the asserted contractual breach by MDH. This case is still ongoing.