Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1149911
NEWS maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 31 JULY 2019 2 Lease of the bare shop at No. 96, Triq Santa Maria, corner with Triq il-Karmnu, Sliema shown edged in red on plan P.D. 2016_0935. Tenders are to be accom- panied by a Bid-Bond for an amount of €23,436 as stipulated in the tender conditions. Offers below the amount of seven thousand eight hundred and twelve Euros (€7,812) per annum will not be considered. The fee of €50 will be charged for each copy of tender document. www.landsauthority.org.mt/services/tendering Lands Authority St. Sebastian Street, Valletta Lands Authority, notifies that: Sealed tenders in respect of the following advertisements have to be dropped in the Tender Box at the Lands Authority, Auberge de Baviere, Valletta by 10.00 am on Thursday, 8th August, 2019. *Advert No.145 *Advert No. 146 Sale tale quale of a garage without its own airspace at No. 29, Triq Maria De Domenicis, Santa Lucia as shown edged in red on plan L.D. 11/82/60. Tenders are to be accompanied by a Bid-Bond for an amount of €3,000, as stipulated in the tender conditions. Offers below the amount of thirty thousand Euros (€30,000) will not be considered. A fee of €10 will be charged for each copy of tender document. *Advert No. 147 Lease tale quale for commercial purposes of the premises at Stores 'B' and 'C', Triq il-Karrijiet, Valletta, shown edged in red and marked 'B' and 'C' on plan P.D. 2007_5. The common area shown edged in yellow on the same plan is not included in this tender. Tenders are to be accompanied by a Bid-Bond for an amount of €28,575 as stipulated in the tender conditions. Offers below the amount of nine thousand five hundred and twenty-five Euros (€9,525) per annum will not be considered. A fee of €50 will be charged for each copy of the tender document. *Advert No. 149 Lease tale quale for commercial purposes of a garage at No. III, Triq l-Imhazen, Mdina as shown edged in red and marked No. III on the plan P.D. 2006_546. Tenders are to be accompanied by a Bid-Bond for an amount of €50,000 as stipulated in the tender conditions. Offers below the amount of eighteen thousand two hundred and fifty Euros (€18,250) per annum will not be considered. A fee of €100 will be charged for each copy of the tender document. *Adverts appearing for the first time. Tenders should be submitted only on the prescribed form, together with the relevant conditions and other documents, that are obtainable from the Lands Authority, Auberge de Baviere, Valletta on any working day between 8:30 a.m. and 11:45 a.m. Tender fees are non-refundable *Advert No. 148 Sale of a site at Triq San Gelardu, San Pawl il-Bahar, shown edged in red on plan P.D. 2018_0398. This site is subject to existing servitides in favour of adjacent properties which must be respected. Tenders are to be accompanied by a Bid-Bond for an amount of €1,365 as stipulated in the tender conditions. Offers below the amount of thirteen thousand six hundred and fifty Euros (€13,650) will not be considered. A fee of €10 will be charged for each copy of the tender document. ISSUE OF TENDERS AN appeal filed by Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi against a decision in a defa- mation case he had instituted against Justice Minister Owen Bonnici has been rejected on appeal. Azzopardi had filed defamation proceed- ings against Bonnici over allegations made by the minister during a press confer- ence, in which he announced that he had "sworn information" confirming Azzo- pardi's interference in the 2009 transfer of the land on which the Lowenbrau brewery stood when Azzopardi was parliamentary secretary responsible for the then Lands Department. Bonnici claimed that Azzopardi had in- terfered in the process of the sale and had ensured that the land was sold to busi- nessman and PN benefactor Nazzareno Vassallo in 2009, at its value in 1990 – a mere €706,400. At the start of the year a court of Mag- istrates had dismissed the case, but Azzo- pardi filed an appeal, insisting that he had never met Vassallo, nor had he told him he would seek a compromise on the issue. The case revolved around land in Qormi which the government had given on per- petual emphyteusis to LBM Breweries Ltd in 1990. The concession had a condi- tion that LBM Breweries "use the site for industrial purposes, specifically for the production of alcohol and non-alcoholic beverages". But in December 2009, the Government had transferred the ownership of the land to the company and declared that it was withdrawing any conditions on it. This lifting of the conditions was raised in parliament, and eventually led to the Lands Department insisting that the con- tract had been null, due to procedural ir- regularities. Eventually, an agreement between the government and Cater Group Ltd (for- merly LBM Breweries) was reached and three architects were appointed to es- timate the value of the land, leading to the figure of €706,400, which, once the amount already paid in 1990 was de- ducted, left an outstanding balance to €240,526.33. This was the amount paid to the government. Bonnici had alleged that Vassallo had met with Azzopardi with the aim of find- ing a compromise. The court noted that this referred to Vassallo's testimony in a separate case, in which he had said that he "received a response from the Lands De- partment because I spoke to and had even gone to the Minister responsible at the time, and the answer had been that they were ready to sit around a table and find a compromise". The minister had argued that it was only through Azzopardi's intervention that the compromise had been found. The Court of Appeal, presided by judge Anthony Ellul, observed that the proof that this meeting between Vassallo and Azzopardi had actually taken place, and that the words "we will find a compro- mise" were said by Azzopardi, had to be provided by Bonnici. Vassallo was never summoned to testify in this case. The court noted that it was not clear when Vassallo had met with the minister and that Azzopardi had been Parliamen- tary Secretary for Lands and later a min- ister under whose authority the Lands Department fell. "Whether he likes it or not, the plaintiff must carry the political responsibility for that which took place under his watch." The court said there was no doubt that Azzopardi had accepted the settlement with Cater Group Limited which meant that the government would stop legal proceedings ordered in March 2011. He had also accepted that the government receive €240,525.33 in compensation for the property. It was irrelevant whether a meeting about the compromise between Azzo- pardi and Vassallo ever took place, said the court. "Irrespective of whether Azzopardi had personally told Vassallo that they were going to seek a compromise or not…that fact alone is not enough for the court to conclude that the defendant is guilty of defamation." It would have been a different story had the evidence shown that all that took place after the judicial letter of 20 May 2001 to the publication of the contract in 2012 had happened behind Azzopardi's back, said the court, "but the evidence gives an altogether different picture." Court rejects Jason Azzopardi's Lowenbrau defamation case against Justice Minister