Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/364850
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 17 AUGUST 2014 8 News Eurovision singer gets €20,000 to 'coordinate bands promotion' TIM DIACONO EUROVISION singer William Mangion is being paid €19,582 each year under the contract he has with the government to 'coordinate the promotion of local bands'. The Ministry for Justice and Cul- ture signed the contract with the singer last year, soon after Labour's election victory. The ministry said the scale is "an equivalent of maximum Scale 10 with the government". Mangion remains responsible for paying his own income tax, VAT and the national insurance contri- bution. Mangion, most famous for sing- ing 'This Time' at the 1993 Euro- vision Song Contest, is officially described as 'coordinator for the promotion of local bands', an en- tirely new position for which the government did not issue any for- mal call. According to justice and culture minister Owen Bonnici, Mangion was the right person for the job be- cause of his "vast experience in the [music] sector". What exactly does a coordinator for the promotion of local bands do, though? The government said that Mangion's duties are three- fold. He is responsible for "identi- fying a suitable place for bands to meet for rehearsals", "compiling a database of bands and artists who need such a space" and "preparing a proposal for the organisation and proper running of this building". The government told MaltaTo- day that Mangion has created a database of 371 local bands and ar- tistes, which includes their contact details. He has also "put forward the conceptual idea behind the set- ting up of a centre according to the needs of bands and artistes". Mangion also provided the gov- ernment with a list of possible al- ternative sites and venues and he has "assisted the government in promoting events which showcase the talent of local bands". "William Mangion has contrib- uted, with his expertise, in pro- viding new opportunities for local bands to perform in public," the ministry said. A recording artist who wishes to remain anonymous had earlier told MaltaToday that Mangion had contacted him, requesting an updated list of email contacts for all Maltese bands. In November 2013, Mangion said that the government was prob- ably going to rent out venues and rent them out to bands at a subsi- dised rate. However, he added that any system should allow bands to choose how long they would like to rent a venue out for. On 14 July Owen Bonnici con- firmed that the government was still evaluating Mangion's pro- posals. "His job was not to simply find a garage but one should also consider the technical research re- quired in finding the perfect place," Bonnici said. 45% of Freedom of Information requests refused Few applicants tend to follow-up initial refusals with complaints to the public authority MATTHEW VELLA A total of 77 requests for Freedom of Information (FOI) requests have been turned down since the full implemen- tation of the FOI Act in September 2012. Of the total valid requests lodged, 94 were accepted in full or in part. But people using Malta's freedom of information act seldom follow-up their first refusals with a complaint to the public authority: only 28 com- plaints were made over first refusals. An FOI request is considered to be accepted in part when the document or information is supplied but is ei- ther redacted in some form, or is not provided to the applicant in the appli- cant's desired format. Of the 77 refusals, 30 were based on Article 5 of the FOI Act, which states that another legislation – most of the time, the Data Protection Act – pro- hibits that the information is made public. Another 24 requests were withheld by virtue of Part V or Part VI of the law, which includes a list of exemp- tions where information cannot be made public. Another 23 requests were withheld for other reasons stem- ming from the law. In its information to MaltaToday, the ministry for social dialogue and civil liberties said that there were 28 different complaints to the public au- thorities that processed the requests, suggesting that of the 77 refusals, ap- plicants in only 28 cases appealed the refusal. Refusals on complaints can then be appealed with the office of the Infor- mation and Data Protection Commis- sioner, which so far has dealt with 18 complaints, rejecting 13 and accept- ing one complaint. Four complaints are still pending. The law states that replies must be provided within 20 working days, un- less there is a valid reason to extend that period: the average response was of 16.7 working days. Only five com- plaints for action against the public authority for failing to reply in time were received. All requests under the FOI Act are logged into a system across the gov- ernment's many public authorities. A total of 181 requests were logged since September 2012, but some requests were abandoned by the ap- plicants, and are not included in this amount. Valid FOI requests were distributed among 61 different public authori- ties. Currently there are 10 FOI requests awaiting the first action from the re- spective public authority. Under Parts V and VI of the FOI Act, documents that could be expect- ed to cause damage to the security, the defence, or the international rela- tions of Malta, Cabinet documents, and documents that prejudice the conduct of an investment or endan- ger a confidential source of informa- tion, are exempt from the law. Various other exemptions exist un- der the FOI to protect privacy and law enforcement agencies from divulging information that could invalidate their work. Government companies and public authorities can also withhold docu- ments from being published if their disclosure compromises trade secrets, destroy or diminish commercial val- ue, or affect other financial interests of the country. China investment row: Camilleri 'personally' picked former envoy JURGEN BALZAN GOVERNMENT'S investment promotion arm yesterday hit out at former Malta Enterprise chairman Alan Camilleri, claiming reports in The Sunday Times on a former envoy to China, were incorrect. Malta Enterprise reacted to a report penned by journalist Ivan Camilleri – brother to Alan – which claimed that Sai Mizzi Liang, wife of energy minis- ter Konrad Mizzi, was being paid three times the salary package paid to her predecessor Paul Cardona. But Malta Enterprise yesterday said that its previous investment envoy to China was handpicked by executive chairman Alan Camilleri, and that the employee terminated his contract ear- lier than expected. Mizzi Liang's appointment remains one of the first controversial decisions taken upon Labour's election. Like her predecessor 'hand-picked' to take up the job in Shanghai, her contract was never divulged until the minister's wife was spoken to by two journalists accompanying the Prime Minister's delegation in Beijing. On his return, Joseph Muscat presented her contract in parliament, which pays her €3,748 monthly but carries additionally allow- ances which the Opposition believes is worth over €150,000 annually. Yesterday, Malta Enteprise said Car- dona was picked by Camilleri without an open call being made, and explained that the envoy terminated his contract prematurely after being given no re- sources to cover the whole of China and Asia. Malta Enterprise said that "as at March 2013, there was no employee, nor any external contractor of Malta Enterprise, focusing on investment in China," adding that Cardona had "prematurely" terminated his con- tract one year before it expired. "The person concerned was re- cruited directly by the then chairman of Malta Enterprise, Alan Camilleri, in April 2010 without a public call. Although the contract was for three years, the person concerned left af- ter only two years." While noting that Malta Enterprise was not satisfied with Cardona's per- formance, a spokesperson said that Cardona "was given an impossible task –that of exclusive responsibil- ity for investment promotion for the whole of China and Asia – without commensurate resources and with- out clearly defined and focused ob- jectives, it is not at all surprising that there were no results whatsoever." It added that The Sunday Times had been "warmly encouraged" to ask former chairman Alan Camill- eri, whose brother Ivan authored the report, "why in his view the con- tractor ended his contract before its expiry." The agency today has active invest- ment promotion programmes in the US, Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, the Ukraine, Russia, China including Hong Kong, Egypt and Algeria. It now intends to intensify its pro- grammes by the end of the year and expand its operations to other coun- tries such as Switzerland, Austria, Australia, Finland, Turkey, Canada and South Korea. Malta Enterprise said that between May and December 2013 "a record total of 36 new FDI projects has been ap- proved", compared to two projects 2010, 11 in 2011 and two in 2012. A further 17 projects were ap- proved in 2014, expected to gen- erate 624 new jobs according to Malta Enter- prise. William Mangion (centre) at a Labour Party rally during the 2013 general election campaign Sai Mizzi Liang – her predecessor as investment envoy to China was handpicked by then Malta Enterprise executive chairman Alan Camilleri (pictured)