Sandra Gauci, ADPD-The Green Party Chairperson, and Mario Mallia, Deputy Secretary General, said Saturday that the verdict of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) is a certificate of incompetence, contradictions, and a lack of transparency.   

ADPD-The Green Party contends that contrary to what the government is implying, the ICC verdict does not annul the two previous sentences that the Maltese court passed regarding Steward, describing the agreement as fraudulent and tainted through collusion with government officials. 

The ICC decision does not cancel the fact that Joseph Muscat, Konrad Mizzi, and other persons are still involved in criminal proceedings in relation to the issue.  ADPD-The Green Party insists that not only has the ICC verdict not repealed this fact, it has also based its decision on the annulment of the agreement granted by the Maltese courts.  

The speakers also said that contrary to what is being communicated by the government, the ICC decision confirmed that the concession clearly favoured Steward.  The secret agreement signed by Konrad Mizzi, in which the government was bound to pay 100 million Euro if the contract was terminated, is evidence of this, the party said.   

The government has yet to explain the contradictory claims being made after the ICC sentence said that Malta has been given fair value for what was paid to Steward, whilst during submissions to ICC, the same government insisted for compensation to the tune of nearly half a billion euro, because as according to the government, Steward failed its contractual obligations.      

The government has yet to explain as to why Steward continued to be paid while it knew that there were breaches of contract and yet at the same time it was defending the concession.  The fact that the government itself failed to take action with regard to the breach of contract compromised the government's very own position, so much so that this fact was used by the ICC against Malta's claim for compensation. 

It is evident that the government took decisions to consciously cover up the mess that Joseph Muscat, Konrad Mizzi and others made instead of defending Malta's interests. 

Were it not for the annulment by the Maltese courts, it would have been difficult for the Maltese government to break away from its contract with Stewart, and it must be kept in mind that the same government was defending the concession to the end, insisting that everything was in order.   Had it not been for the annulment by the Maltese courts, millions more would have been lost, all for the sake of protecting the very people responsible for this concession.   

The speakers also contended that the government should explain its contradictions, first denying the owed sum of 488 million Euro and then making a case at ICC to recoup the same sum of money.  If this amount of money had been a figment of somebody's imagination, the government would not have made the attempt to claim this sum of money through the ICC.

The government's excuse for insisting on the 488 million Euros for procedural reasons is a cheap tactic, especially when taking into consideration that much effort was taken to present a detailed account of expenses totalling 488 million Euro.    

The government should also explain why the people involved in the negotiations in the very same concession were not presented as witnesses for the government's case; indeed, the ICC commented that in the process there was a "lack of relevant testimonies".  ADPD-The Green Party asks whether this was because the government had something to hide and whether this was a deliberate move to protect people.      

It is embarrassing to see the government insisting that there was no clear winner in the process when the ICC clearly stated in black and white that one of the primary victims of this concession were the Maltese people.   

In light of all this, ADPD-The Green Party contents that for the sake of transparency and ethics, the government should, at the very least, admit to the disaster that this concession turned out to be, apologise to the people and make assurances all individuals involved in this collusion, a concession that was declared by the Maltese courts as fraudulent, get what they deserve.