Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/333851
THIS WEEK HALF A MILLION PEOPLE WERE DISPLACED IN IRAQ Karl Schembri in Erbil tells us how Save The Children is coping with the exodus after ISIS took Mosul • pg 10-11 BRAZIL 2014 WORLD CUP TONIGHT'S MATCHES 'Me and the Bard' French Prince of Belair's Joseph Marcell plays King Lear in Malta • pg 26 BRAZIL 2014 WORLD CUP TONIGHT'S MATCHES 'Me and the Bard' French Prince of Belair's Joseph Marcell plays King Lear in Malta • pg 26 THE Nationalist and Labour parties have outstanding bills of a combined €2.5 million, which they have owed to Enemalta and the Water Services Corporations for years, MaltaToday has been shown. This newspaper can now state that the PN has bills running up to €1.9 million, while Labour owes ARMS – the Automated Revenue Manage- ment Service – some €600,000 for electricity and water. The information confirms years of speculation that both parties have enjoyed secret amnesties on their electricity and water bills. ARMS have beefed up their credit control department as they put more pressure on many of their clients to pay up for their accumulated elec- tricity and water bills. But as things stand, neither La- bour nor the heavily-indebted Na- tionalist Party are in any state of fi- nancial health to settle the pending amounts. Today ARMS is headed by chief executive Carmen Ciantar, a La- bour activist who was publicly vis- ible during electoral rallies as part of the selected audience seated behind Joseph Muscat. Even Enemalta's new chief executive, Frederick Azzop- ardi, was elected for Labour on the Mdina local council; while former chairman Charles Mangion was lat- er elected to the House on a casual election. While political parties retain an inf luential hold on publicly-owned corporations, various clients who defaulted on their dues have been presented with judicial letters to pay up within a stipulated time, or have their services disconnected. xxxxx Newspaper post CONTINUES PAGE 4 maltatoday WORLD CUP FEVER IS ONLINE AT MALTATODAY.COM.MT/SPORTS/WORLDCUP2014 MATTHEW VELLA NEVILLE Curmi, one of the direc- tor-shareholders of the Café Premier in Valletta, has denied claims that his company was selling off equipment from the cafeteria that should now be government property. His company, Cities Entertainment Ltd, was facing court action in De- cember 2012 by the Lands Depart- ment after it fell behind on its rent for the iconic Premier, located on Pjazza Regina. But the newly-elected Labour gov- ernment retracted the court action, and paid the company €4.2 million to effectively 'bail out' the defaulting tenant, by buying back the 65-year emphyteusis. Under the deal, the government paid Cities Entertainment to pay back an outstanding €2.5 million bank loan, their income tax and VAT arrears, energy bills, ground rents owed to the State, and other creditors of the owners of the Café Premier. On Friday, parliamentary secre- tary Michael Falzon told MaltaToday that Cities Entertainment had "the right to take certain equipment", apart from having handed over other equipment to the government: which would include all items inside the Café Premier and its lacklustre 'Great Siege 1565' waxworks attraction. "The keys are in the government's hands, and projects for the place are already planned," Falzon said of the café that lies beneath the Biblioteca, the National Library. But when contacted about reports from eyewitnesses that Cities En- tertainment had been trying to sell equipment from the former Café Pre- mier, Curmi denied the claims and insisted that Cities Entertainment's business "was a private matter". "I don't appreciate your questions," Curmi told MaltaToday. When it was put to him that Cities Entertainment should answer for the fact that taxpayer money had been used to buy back a government lease – money used specifically to repay Cities Entertainment's pending tax and utility bills – Curmi replied: 'Taxpayers got value for money' says Café Premier owner on Labour's €4.2 million bailout CONTINUES PAGE 5 €1.20 BELGIUM v RUSSIA 18:00 SOUTH KOREA v ALGERIA 21:00 USA v PORTUGAL 00:00 Parties owe €2.5 million in energy and water bills SUNDAY • 22 JUNE 2014 • ISSUE 763 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY