Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/333851
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 22 JUNE 2014 5 News Taxpayers got good value for money, claims Café Premier owner CONTINUES FROM PAGE 1 "Taxpayers' money? The taxpayers got value for their money. The value of Café Pre- mier was far more than we got." Curmi refused to tell MaltaTo- day what he believed was Café Pre- mier's actual value. "That is Cities Entertainment's business… the company's debts were paid by sell- ing off its assets." In December 2012, Cities Enter- tainment was facing possible evic- tion after the Lands Department initiated court action against the company for being in default of its emphyteutical contract. When told that the Lands Department was within its right to evict the com- pany rather than bail out its debts, Curmi suggested that MaltaToday was not aware of the full details of the case. "We were late with payments… do you think the government is mad [in buying out the lease]? Your ar- gument makes no sense." Amicable deal The parliamentary secretariat for lands, under Michael Farrugia (now social policy minister) reached an "amicable settlement" by cancelling court action in the summer of 2013, to pay its €200,000 in arrears owed to the government or face eviction under the conditions of the emphy- teutical grant. At the time of the court action, the café was paying just over €93,000 in annual ground rent. On 5 February, 2013, the Lands Department told the court that a repayment programme, alleged by Neville Curmi to have been in place, was never formalised and that the department "was within its right to proceed with the dissolution of the emphyteutical grant from the mo- ment a payment is not honoured." On 20 March, 2013, the Lands Department told the court that two payments of an unspecified amount had been made. In July 2013, law- yers from both Cities Entertain- ment and the Commissioner for Lands told the court that agreement had been reached to cease all court action. Under the €4.2 million deal, the government was buying all the caf- eteria's machinery and furniture and the waxworks museum, but the cash had to be used to pay back all their outstanding debts with the government and release them from a 65-year concession. The owners had to pay back: €307,346 to settle outstanding ar- rears with the government property division and €504,000 in capital gains tax owed on the land; then the sum of €192,748 to the Inland Rev- enue Department to settle income tax and social security payments, €227,058 to the VAT Department on outstanding dues and legal pro- cedures against the company, and €130,963 in energy bills for ARMS; and also €210,000 to the company's own shareholders, M&A Invest- ments, and €3,265 to creditors Golden Harvest. Finally, another €2,560,800 was paid to Banif Bank, in settlement of the outstanding bank loans that Cities Entertainment held with the bank, payable in four instalments. FOI request The Government Property Divi- sion has refused a Freedom of Infor- mation request by this newspaper to reveal the workings of the value of the Café Premier acquisition. The GPD says it cannot reveal the information because of a police in- vestigation into a report filed by the parliamentary secretariat for lands over comments by Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi, who questioned whether "commissions" were paid for the deal between the govern- ment and Cities Entertainment to be brokered. Michael Farrugia said he was will- ing to publish the paperwork into how the government came to the €4.2 million deal, once police inves- tigations into allegations of "com- missions" were concluded. MaltaToday understands that the investigation has not continued beyond statements made to the po- lice.