Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/217686
€0.90 WEDNESDAY EDITION WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT Editorial - PAGE 11 WEDNESDAY • 27 NOVEMBER 2013 • ISSUE 342 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY FORMER JOURNALIST BENEFITED FROM 600K CONTRACTS, MOSTLY DIRECT ORDERS JURGEN BALZAN MEDIA company Content House has benefited from over €600K in direct orders and tenders from various ministries between 1998 and 2013. Figures tabled in parliament this week show that the company directed by former Times journalist Jesmond Bonello was awarded a large number of contracts, mostly direct orders, from the majority of ministries under consecutive Nationalist administrations. A number of ministries, including the Prime Minister's Office, have not yet tabled the list of direct orders awarded to Content House, and the global amount is set to rise once all ministries provide the information. Bonello is suing MaltaToday for libel over questions and comments made by managing editor Saviour Balzan in his weekly column, where Balzan contended that the firm had benefited from direct orders. Coincidentially, yesterday Balzan and MaltaToday editor Matthew Vella received a court protest filed by Bonello in which the managing director of Content House accused the MaltaToday editors of going on a fishing expedition for trying to prove that the company benefited from direct orders. So far, evidence given in court before the last election has not indicated the amount tabled in parliament this week. Floodgates to high-rise JAMES DEBONO THE new policy on building heights launched by Parliamentary Secretary Michael Farrugia on Monday paves the way for the development 7 to 10 apartment blocks in Sliema. Gzira, St Julians and Marsascala. While public attention was inevitably focused on the decision to limit buildings higher than 10 storey blocks to Qawra, Paceville, Tigne, Marsa Gzira and Pembroke, the new policy is also set to change the urban landscape of a number of localities by allowing so-called medium rise developments. The new policy allows medi- um-sized developments in the entire urban conurbation from St Julians and Sliema in the north to Gzira, Msida and Pieta, in Marsa and Marsascala in the south, and in Bugibba, Qawra, St Paul's Bay in the north. In those areas, where the local plans limit building heights to 6, 7 or 8 floors, apartment blocks will now rise to up to 10 stories. These areas include the Sliema front where development is currently limited to 8 floors. But no such development is allowed in town centres designated as urban conservation areas. CONTINUES ON PAGE 6 Jesmond Bonello as he appears in his website. When he was a director at Malta Enterprise his firm was awarded direct orders from ME Bonello has also said in court that government work does not represent the bulk of his company's revenue. In court, Bonello also admitted that he had done some work for Air Malta, but could not remember who had given him the work and what it had amounted to. Bonello also served as a director at Malta Enterprise between 2008 and 2013. Among the direct orders awarded to Content House, the biggest contract amounted to €127,900. The direct order was issued by the government's IT agency, MITA in 2011 for the provision of publicity services. In 2008, the company was also awarded a €275,574 tender by MITA for the provision of advertising and communication services over a four-year period. Content House also benefitted from 22 direct orders from Malta Enterprise between 2011 and 2013, which amounted to over €10,000. RADICAL FRANCIS SEE PAGE 4 LIBYA IN CHAOS SEE PAGE 2 Newspaper post Former Times journalist had sued MaltaToday over direct order report