Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1016519
19 LETTERS & EDITORIAL maltatoday | SUNDAY • 19 AUGUST 2018 Telemalta and Maltacom employees' shares In 1975 Telemalta Corporation was formed and some years after this was renamed Maltacom and subsequently changed to GO Plc. During this period of time the number of employees was roughly around 1,700. With the initiative of the GWU and the government, the Telemalta the Maltacom Employees Foundation was formed. An agreement took place amongst the indicated parties, wherein it was agreed that the government loans this foundation Lm3 million in order to buy shares in Maltacom Plc, which were quoted on the Malta Stock Exchange. When the shares were purchased at that time the value of Maltacom Plc shares was 90c of the then Malta lira. This enabled the foundation to purchase 3,333,333 shares which up to this day are still registered in the foun- dation's name. During these 20 years since the formation of the foundation, the latter has been able to pay half of the debt owed to the government on the loan of Lm3 million. At the mo- ment the debt owed to the government by the Foundation is Lm1.5 million Maltese liri. The Maltacom Employees Founda- tion has no statute like other compa- nies, foundations or committees, but has an agreement amongst three par- ties. I will quote some of the clauses in this agreement. Every employee is entitled to a cer- tain amount of units. The employee obtains these units in the following manner. Any employee who has been in employment for 20 years or more got 20 units. This amount increased for every 10 years by 1 unit. No employee was given more than 22 units. Another clause specifies that any employee who retires has no right to attend any gen- eral or extraordinary meetings, and has not right for a vote. The only obligation the foundation has towards the retired employees is that every retiree is paid the amount according to his units, at the price of the share value on the 31st December of the year he retires. Once the retiree is paid his due the foundation does not acknowledge this retiree further. In general and extraor- dinary meetings only the current em- ployees are allowed to attend. Further, the employee has no right to amend any clauses in the agreement, any amendment are only possible by the approval of the GWU (the founder), the Government of the time and GO Plc. The past retirees were not all treated the same. There are hundreds of work- ers who retired in 2002, 2008, 2011 and 2012 who received no payments from their shares, not even a single cent. The important thing was that they received a certificate thanking them for the 30 or 40 years of service. Others received Lm100, while others €1,000 (over Lm430). To bring this issue to its end, in the name of the retirees and their families, I am bringing forward this query and would appreciate a reply. To the par- ties running the foundation, GWU, Government, GO plc, when another 20 years pass, the Lm3,000,000 debt owed to the government would have been paid, all retirees would have been given the amount due… then who is going to own the 3,333,333 shares listed on the Malta Stock Exchange? The GWU was founded to protect the workers and not to enrich itself. GO plc – when asked about who would owes the shares in 20 years' time – is never prepared to answer any ques- tions. So the workers are in the dark as to who will owe the 3,333,333 shares In GO Plc in 20 years' time. Francis Paris Zabbar Efimova's departure It is now abundantly clear why Maria Efimova, the Russian source of the Egrant story, fled from Malta. She must have been convinced the at- tempt to frame the prime minister's wife would be exposed by the inquir- ing magistrate, Aaron Bugeja. Simon Busuttil made that allega- tion the PN's battle-cry and asked the President of Malta to intervene and request Joseph Muscat to resign. He is now in deep trouble. Asked to resign by the PN leader and Admin- istrative Council, what actually hap- pened was that Adrian Delia turned tail and let Busuttil off the hook. Others should be facing the music, among them MEP David Casa, who made himself Efimova's main de- fender, going to Greece in his bid to fight her extradition to Malta to face accusations of fraud and false accu- sations against police officers. Eddy Privitera Mosta Mikiel Galea Letters & Clarifications