Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/492208
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 8 APRIL 2015 3 News Mizzi: Public deeds were not hidden How 45-year lease was turned into 99-year emphyteusis Busuttil dubs Labour 'spin-masters', says 'nothing' done in energy JAMES DEBONO THE land on which the Marsa power station stood was in 2012 leased to a special purpose vehicle, Vault Fi- nance, so that it could use the land as a hypothec for banking finance while paying Enemalta an annual rent. The 2012 deed leased the land to Vault Finance for 45 years against an annual rent of €37,200. In 2014, Enemalta was changed from a government corporation into a pub- lic limited company when Shanghai Electric Power became a 33% share- holder of the state utility company. In the run-up to the incorporation of the plc, Vault Finance released the land back to the Lands Department so that it could be transferred to Enemal- ta plc, this time on a lease of 99 years for an annual payment of €65,000. Unlike in 2012 when the land was first leased to Enemalta, the land can now be granted to third parties with- out the need of a public tender and a parliamentary resolution. This is be- cause Enemalta plc has been exempt- ed from laws regulating the transfer and disposal of public land. In August 2014, before granting En- emalta plc the 99-year emphyteusis, the government took back the land by paying €2.4 million to Vault Finance Ltd – a special purpose vehicle cre- ated by the previous administration in 2012 as part of the restructuring process to address Enemalta's debts. The amount was deducted from a larger sum owed to the government by Vault Finance Ltd. On the same day Enemalta paid a one-time payment of €2.6 million to the government so that it could take the land under a title of emphyteusis for 99 years. To get back the land before grant- ing the same land on more favourable terms to Enemalta the government utilised a clause in the 2012 agree- ment, which enabled the government to purchase the "temporary domini- um utile" of the Marsa power station land at any time before 2046. The site of the Marsa power station and its surrounding lands, measur- ing in total just over 67,000 square metres, was granted to Enemalta for a 99-year period. Replying to MaltaToday earlier this month Enemalta said the conditions of the acquisition, including the price, were pre-established in the 2012 agreement with Vault Finance before Enemalta was turned into a plc. But Enemalta failed to point out that the lease had been extended from 45 to 99 years. When the original deed was signed in 2012, Enemalta was still state- owned and was not exempted from laws regulating the disposal of gov- ernment-owned land which came into effect in August 2014. Enemalta will no longer need the land in Marsa after the power station is dismantled and decommissioned, which land also includes maritime in- frastructure presently administrated by Transport Malta. Legal Notice 302, of 27 August 2014, specifically refers to the deeds signed two days earlier on 25 August which included the lease for the land occu- pied by the Marsa power station. The legal notice removed all "re- strictive conditions which limit the use or the transfer of the land in- cluded in the public deeds" which had been imposed by the government on Enemalta by virtue of the application of the Disposal of Government Land Act. The public deed through which the government reclaimed the land from Vault Finance was published by the PN yesterday, while the deed grant- ing the land to Enemalta for 99 years was already published by MaltaToday last Sunday. MaltaToday has revealed that the land at Marsa has already been identified for future commer- cial development. MaltaToday had requested the deed two weeks ago, but the request was not acceded to by either Enemalta or the Government Property Department, and then only released through the office of the par- liamentary secretariat for lands. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 The land occupied by the former Marsa power station, now in the process of being dismantled, will be used for commercial development, and has now been leased to Enemalta plc for 99 years for €65,000 a year. Additionally Enemalta plc has been freed from customary rules on the disposal of public land, so that it can sub-lease the land to third par- ties without the need for public ten- der or a parliamentary resolution. Indeed, Labour had already pledged a "recreational and com- mercial space" instead of the de- commissioned Marsa power station in its 2013 electoral manifesto. The deed for the Marsa lease was signed just days before the legal no- tice that created Enemalta plc. But the Opposition has questioned why Enemalta was being exempted from the Disposal of Government Land Act, with shadow justice min- ister Jason Azzopardi arguing that the hushed conclusion of the con- tracts and the publication of the legal notice raised questions on the government's actions. "It should not have been the Op- position's role to publish these doc- uments. Even more so legal notice Legal Notice 302 specifically titled 'removal of restrictive conditions order'. It is evident that the govern- ment is hiding, but the question is in whose interests?" Azzopardi asked. But Konrad Mizzi said that these deeds were "all public by their own nature and can be accessible by any- one from the Lands Registry. Most of these deeds relate to properties which were removed from Enemal- ta and assigned to Enemed." Enemed Fuels is the government company handling fuel distribution, previously in the hands of Enemalta Corporation. The entity was carved out to separate the profit-making petroleum division from Enemalta, which remained fully owned by the State. "The transfer was made to en- sure that the assets relating to the petroleum division do not remain within Enemalta plc. This was also announced in parliament," Mizzi said. As for the land, these lucrative assets were passed on to the newly- incorporated Enemalta plc. The Marsa land had already been leased for 45 years to Vault Finance in 2012, a special purpose vehicle created to refinance Enemalta Cor- poration. The land has now been leased for 99 years to Enemalta plc. Most importantly, Mizzi said that the incorporation of Enemalta plc was already discussed in parliament both in plenary and at committee stages. "Even if the deal with SEP [in December 2014] hadn't material- ised, we still would have turned En- emalta into a commercial company. We would have done it anyway and it was part of its changing process." Asked why the Opposition had not contested the Legal Notice at an earlier stage, Jason Azzopardi said the Opposition had used the parlia- mentary debate on energy "to raise arguments on transparency". The MP said the Lands Depart- ment had been under a lot of pres- sure in August to finish the con- tracts in less than 24 hours, "staying up until 4am". He said the government was hid- ing its tracks and covering its back. "Why was all that rush neces- sary in August? Perhaps pressure was made by investors?" Azzopardi asked. The PN argued that the transfer of land to Enemalta had ensured that the company's asset base was en- riched before the deal with Shanghai Electric Power was concluded. Rais- ing questions on the grant of 310,000 square metres of public land, the PN suggested that the government may already be eyeing an investment. Konrad Mizzi however said that, while Enemalta plc would be invest- ing in the renewable energy sector, "the plan is to leave the bigger mar- ket to the investors. Enemalta's pilot project will be a small one while the rest will be undertaken by the pri- vate sector." PHOTOGRAPHY BY RAY ATTARD MIRIAM DALLI PN leader Simon Busuttil turned to the Nationalist voters in St Julian's urging them to "stand up and be counted" and vote for the PN's candidates in next Saturday's local elections. Addressing a political activity in St Julian's the PN leader – heav- ily criticised by his Labour opponent for "hiding from the press" – said his party was focusing its attention on lo- calities "because, unlike the PL, it had a lot to offer". Kicking off his speech by criticising the Labour Party for harping on the government's work instead of saying what Labour-led councils would do for their residents, Busuttil said PN- led councils would always work in fa- vour of the community. He went on to list the works carried out by the PN in St Julian's and plans in the pipeline if the PN candidates are elected with a majority. Arguing that the PN was starting off at a disadvantage – only eight locali- ties out of the 26 in Malta contesting the elections are PN-led – Busuttil said residents should vote according to the councils that have delivered. Accusing the PL of suffering from "collective amnesia", the PN leader said the government was now pledging embellishment works at Paola square, repeating a promise made four years ago but which never materialised. "This government of collective amnesia, the deceit that has become synonymous with Labour, thinks the people are stupid and will believe any- thing. "They are spin-masters, fooling people that they are doing something in the energy sector when in real- ity they have done nothing," Busuttil said. According to the Opposition leader, the government had implemented nothing in the energy sector: instead of inaugurating a new power plant it closed the Marsa power station; the BWSC plant which Labour had be- rated so much in the past had been sold for €320 million. "This week the government will in- augurate the interconnector, a project possible thanks to the Nationalist ad- ministration. They will have Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi over … I doubt that they will tell him it was our project: Presidente del consilio, l'interconnector l'abbiamo fatto noi," Busuttil quipped in Italian. Giving his credence to a claim floated by the PN media for several months now, the PN leader also declared that the Prime Minister was "preparing to get rid of Foreign Affairs Minister George Vella, and replace him with (dismissed minister) Manuel Mallia". The claim was immediately rub- bished by the Labour Party, which described Busuttil's comments as "another invention and a delusional act by a desperate person who has nothing to say". Labour added that Busuttil should stop hiding from the media and come clean on what the Gozitan contractor- turned-whistleblower had told him. Busuttil, like PN deputy leader Mario de Marco before him, mocked Mallia for calling himself "a soldier of steel" during a political activity in Haz-Zebbug. He went on to add that the PN was working hard to regain the people's trust, basing itself on honesty. Konrad Mizzi Simon Busuttil