Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/368911
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 24 AUGUST 2014 3 News The St Bartholomew Pyrotechnic Association of Gharghur last night attempted to break a national record, as it set alight its mechanised Catherine Wheel. Spanning 85 feet in diameter, the structure was inaugurated at 11.30pm last night, during the locality's annual feast in celebration of its patron saint, St Bartholomew. PHOTOGRAPHY BY RAY ATTARD 'Police investigation into Café Premier did not follow trail of €210,000 fee' Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi says Police did not follow the trail of a €210,000 'commission' factored into the tax-funded €4.2 milion compensation for the Café Premier bailout MATTHEW VELLA SHADOW home affairs minis- ter Jason Azzopardi has suggested that the police did not do enough to investigate an alleged €210,000 commission that was factored into a €4.2 million compensation for the rescission of the Café Premier lease. The €210,000 is believed to have been constituted as a fee by a share- holder in Cities Entertainment Ltd, Mario Camilleri, for having secured the agreement with government consultant John Sciberras to have the Lands Department buy back the 65-year lease on the government property. Azzopardi, who as former minister for lands had called on Cities Enter- tainment to pay their rental arrears, questioned whether a police inves- tigation on alleged commissions had been thorough enough. "Do we know whether the police entered in detail as to the timeline of the €210,000, who issued this pay- ment, who received it, and whether it moved to another recipient?" Az- zopardi asked on Radio 101. "For the sake of argument… let's assume that a third person, a gov- ernment official or a consultant, had his hand in the soup. Wouldn't this be a case of bad governance?" The Opposition has asked the Auditor General to investigate the workings of the €4.2 million com- pensation paid to Cities Enter- tainment for the rescission of the 65-year lease, ostensibly to vacate the premises underlying the Na- tional Library in Valletta. The PN said it wants to learn whether the compensation was ethical, in line with government procurement rules, whether this was discrimina- tory towards similar businesses and whether other intermediaries were involved in the deal. "Wouldn't any businessman fac- ing eviction from their government owned premises be justified in de- manding the same treatment," Az- zopardi asked. "It's scandalous that a director of Cities Entertainment told the police that another director had claimed €210,000 in the form of a commis- sion," he said. According to a police investiga- tion into allegations of commis- sions, shareholder-director Nev- ille Curmi alleged that his partner Mario Camilleri claimed the money after reaching the deal with the former Lands Department director, John Sciberras. On his part, Camill- eri denied to police that this was a commission, but said that the debt had been constituted due to monies he had poured into the running of the ailing business. "We heard so much talk from La- bour about its pledges for good gov- ernance, transparency and value for money… the message it sends out to the business community is that it is better off not paying its dues to the state, so that the government can bail it out when they go bank- rupt," Azzopardi said. The MP also disputed govern- ment's claim that it took the op- portunity to evict Café Premier's owners so that the catering estab- lishment would not pose any dan- ger to the rare documents housed in the overlying Biblioteca. "They could have chosen to pro- ceed with the court case over the outstanding rental arrears, and de- mand the rescission of the lease to recoup the property. This is what the Nationalist government did to recoup the Rinella film studios from its current operators after they de- faulted on their rental payments."