Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1058684
maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 5 DECEMBER 2018 3 NEWS MASSIMO COSTA THE Moviment Patrijotti Maltin has come out to criticise the government for not saying whether or not it intends to sign the United Nations Global Compact for Migration. The Global Compact is an inter-governmen- tally negotiated agreement which comprehen- sively covers issues related to international migration. The UN will be holding a confer- ence to adopt the compact on 11 December. MPM said, however, that while countries such as the United States, Australia, Aus- tria, Hungary, Poland, Greece and Italy had declared that they would not be signing the compact, the Maltese government and the Opposition had "not said a word" about the agreement. The anti-immigration party said, at a press conference yesterday, that it had asked the government multiple times to make public its intentions on the matter but to no avail, and that it was "unacceptable, unjust and anti- democratic" that the Maltese people have not been informed about the content of the agree- ment, "with the repercussions that it could have on our country". "MPM condemns the government's silence before this threat to the Maltese people's sov- ereignty, and equally condemns the silence of the Opposition, which apparently has forgot- ten what nationalism means and what its duty is," party leader Henry Battistino said. "We also appeal to Maltese – supposedly independent – journalists to not forget what their principal duty is; that of informing the people, because if there is no news value in informing citizens that they could be on the verge of losing their country's sovereignty, then what has news value?" Battistino added that the government didn't have an electoral mandate to "throw away" Malta's sovereignty, and that the MPM was expecting an "immediate reply" about the is- sue from the government, failing which it would be taking "all legal measures" to ensure the safeguarding of this sovereignty. Anti-immigration party urges Government to say if it intends to sign UN migration contract Continued from Page 1 "While we contend that the OECD is the appropriate institution where global tax matters should be discussed and agreed, we will still evalu- ate objectively the latest tax proposal by Germany and France on digital advertising by big international compa- nies," Maltese Finance Minis- ter Edward Scicluna said. Scicluna met European counterparts in Brussels, where he underlined his country's steadfast belief on unanimity in tax matters, a principle enshrined in the Treaties of the Union. The French and Germans have now presented a plan to impose a 3% tax on revenues generated by ad sales in the digital economy, which is a compromise that abandons wider plans to target some tech giants on data sales. Under the new plan, Face- book and Google would be targeted through their sales of advertising but other re- tailers like Amazon, AirBnB and Spotify were likely to be excluded. Diplomats told the Financial Times the focus on just advertising was "designed to alleviate German concerns that its car companies could be hit by the tax." Nordic economies opposed Europe's attempts to go it alone with new tax rules for digital companies, in favour of broader international rules. Tax matters need unani- mous agreement from all EU governments but a Brussels blueprint on wider digital tax has run into fierce opposition from countries including Ire- land, Finland, Denmark, Swe- den and Luxembourg. ECOFIN also discussed the proposal under the Banking Union Package, the proposals of which are aimed at reduc- ing risks for banks such as the prevailing issue of non-per- forming loans. Scicluna said that reaching an agreement on the Banking Package was a key deliver- able agreed upon in 2016, and should therefore unblock the path for further measures to strengthen the Banking Un- ion. He thanked the Austrian Presidency for addressing a specific issue which Malta had as a result of its limited and illiquid market for subor- dinated liabilities. "The pro- posed solution in that respect gives the necessary considera- tion to the realties of smaller member states." Scicluna also participated in the marathon Eurogroup meeting which approved draft budgetary plans of Eurogroup members, including the Mal- tese draft budget, which was deemed fully compliant with the rules of the Growth and Stability Pact. Tax matters need unanimous agreement from all EU governments NAO highlights lack of documentation and 'proper reconciliation' EU2017 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 The NAO however encoun- tered numerous CBM transac- tions to local suppliers whose payments were less than the threshold of €250,000. "This method of payment does not post entries into the individ- ual supplier's purchase ledger on the direct accounting system. In view of this, the exact amount paid to each supplier could not be reliably established," the NAO said. The NAO said that the sole bid- der for a chauffeur-driven service in April 2016 had failed to satisfy the conditions laid down in the tender, and should have been disqualified straight away. Prospective bidders for chauf- feur-driven cars were required to list the vehicles to be used. If the provision of 40 chauffeur- driven cars could not be met at any one time, the bidder was re- quired to indicate what vehicles were planned to be purchased, and by when these were to be available. The Tender Document stated that "... if the information re- quested is missing, the tender shall be considered as incom- plete". But the sole bidder listed the details for only 11 vehicles out of the 40 required, and also failed to indicate whether he was plan- ning to purchase additional ve- hicles. "This rendered the bid in ques- tion as incomplete and not com- pliant, and therefore it was to be rejected. However, the Evalua- tion Committee requested the bidder to indicate where this requirement was addressed in his original submission, with the latter confirming his ability to provide the required vehicles," the NAO said. In an undated declaration, it was confirmed that the bid- der was "... not in a position to commit itself to provide not less than 40 vehicles at one time ..." – something in conflict with the information submitted by the same bidder. "In order to ensure equal treat- ment, divergence from the orig- inal requirements set out in the tender document should not be allowed. Moreover, any incom- plete offers are to be rejected at the outset," the NAO said. In April 2017, the Presidency Unit within the ministry invited service providers to submit of- fers for the provision of addi- tional chauffeur-driven vehicles, required for two meetings held during the same month. To meet this additional de- mand, the ministry requested five service providers to quote the hourly rate for the hiring of 15 chauffeur-driven vehicles. It then requested direct order ap- proval from the finance minis- try for 30 vehicles – first for 15 vehicles by the cheapest bidder at €25 per hour per car, in total €11,250; then a second for an- other 15 vehicles by the second cheapest bidder at €31.25, for a total cost of €14,063. However, no documentation could be traced for the reason why the ministry procured 30 vehicles instead of the 15 origi- nally requested. "Only the request for quota- tions submitted to the respec- tive service providers in one particular instance was made available. A formal list showing the responses received was not compiled, and thus, the NAO was not in a position to confirm the actual quotes received by the MEAIM." The ministry defended itself saying that security issues ne- cessitated a higher fleet of ex- ecutive cars. "One needs to ap- preciate that during the term of the Maltese Presidency, the Ministry was faced with urgent and extraordinary circumstanc- es," the ministry said. The NAO also complained that there was no proper recon- ciliation of the number of guests charged for by the caterers for 10 formal dinners, for a value of €84,725. Each dinner was to cater for a capacity of between 200 and 300 guests, for a total of 2,500 guests, at premises pro- vided by the caterer, at €33.89 per dinner per guest and even- tually charged accordingly for the respective 26 events. But it could not be ascertained that a proper reconciliation between the number of billed guests and persons who regis- tered to attend was performed by the Ministry. "A number of invoices issued by the service provider were not substantiated, while in other cases discrepan- cies were noted," the NAO said. The NAO also said that the EU affairs ministry purchased six encryption devices for €151,064 which however could not be traced in the inventory database. The ministry later said two of these devices are within the Cor- porate Services Directorate while the other four are at MITA. Facebook and Google would be targeted through their sales of advertising