Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1187474
14 THE tinkering of policies to accommodate the interests of magnates and big players in Malta's business world has always fuelled the perception that big business groups also trade in political influence. The sheer proximity and easy access businessmen have to politicians in a small island makes these connec- tions even more immediate, but even harder to decipher. For it is hard to distinguish between trading of influence, and politicians listening to concerns. Still, when access to power translates in policy tinkering, this proximity does give the impression that big business is omnipotent. While corruption, party do- nations and trading of influ- ence are probably a major factor, it may also be the case of what sociologist Michael Briguglio referred to in his study on the approval of the Hilton development in the mid-1990s: a "symbiotic" re- lationship between the State and big developers with "de- velopers providing economic growth and other incentives while the State providing pol- icy and operational support". The rise of the Fenechs Take the Tumas Group as an example. The group has interests in various sectors, namely gam- ing, hospitality and leisure, management, and property development. It runs the Hil- ton Malta, Portomaso Casino, Portomaso Business Tower, the Dolmen Resort Hotel and Ta' Monita in Marsaskala. Together with the Gasan Group, Tumas Group is also behind the Quad Business tower in Mrieħel, and along with Singapore-based Portek Group, was awarded a 30-year concession to operate and manage the Grand Harbour Terminals. It also owns a 30% stake in the Electro Gas, the consortium chosen in 2013 to build the LNG-fired power plant. While the group is known for business acumen, in their rise they often found themselves benefitting from changes in policies under different governments. For although known for Labour sympathies, even at a time when the Maltese business community shunned Labour, the empire's crown jewel Portomaso was planned, ap- proved and developed under a PN administration. The entire area – public land – was leased by the State to the developers for €445,000 a year until 2114, arguably the price of one of the apartments today. However, the lease was eventually sold to the devel- opers for just €1.8 million in 2006, an amount that pales into insignificance when con- sidering the going rate for the luxury apartments the devel- opers were allowed to build. Despite vocal opposition in the Qaliet neighbour- hood among working-class Labour-leaning residents, the party's representative on the planning board (George Vella, today President of the Republic) still voted for the project. Ombudsman Joe Sammut, who commenced an investi- gation triggered by a hunger strike by left-wing activists (which included yours truly), reprimanded the govern- ment's failure "to use its ne- gotiating powers to maxim- ise the benefits to be derived from the deal". One of the first planning de- cisions of the newly-elected Labour government in 2013 was to reverse a decision not to issue a permit for a lagoon development for 46 villas, originally identified as an "ecological zone" in the original permits. The site was originally designated to pro- tect an endemic flower, which subsequently disappeared. More recently, the PA ap- proved 71 apartments instead of the existing Halland hotel development on the basis of an ad hoc policy to circum- vent policies limiting devel- opment to 40% of the site cur- tilage. It did so by inventing the unprecedented formula of calculating the "maximum developable gross floor area" by multiplying the 40% site coverage permitted by policy – 1,474sq.m – by 7.75 floors, maltatoday | SUNDAY • 24 NOVEMBER 2019 ANALYSIS That a nexus exists between politics and big business has been amply clear for years under different administrations. But does Yorgen Fenech's arrest as a person of interest in the Daphne Caruana Galizia assassination suggest that organised crime is also part of the equation? JAMES DEBONO DEBONO After Fenech's arrest: businessman-gone-rogue or the mark of a Mafia? The lasting symbol of the Tumas dynasty: the Portomaso tower, built in the 1990s and for years on end the only high-rise in Malta