Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/747633
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 6 NOVEMBER 2016 4 News JURGEN BALZAN THE government has slapped a fishing cooperative with a judi- cial letter after it failed to pay a €95,407 loan granted in 2012. In comments to MaltaToday, the fisheries department con- firmed that Ghaqda Koperattiva tas-Sajd has not repaid the loan and "the cooperative has been served with a judicial letter filed in court for the repayment of the loan." The loan was made in 2012 for a project to set up a freezing/ cold storage and packing facility, which the department said was to enable fishermen "pack their catch in an approved establish- ment and seek markets abroad." However, these facilities, in- cluding a cold room, are not being used and the cooperative's sec- retary, Pawlu Piscopo, said that separate legal proceedings are impeding the cooperative from using the facilities in Marsaxlokk. Piscopo said that the coopera- tive had asked for an extension to repay the loan before the 2013 election, which was duly granted by the then minister responsible for fisheries, George Pullicino. He added that a similar agree- ment was reached with the La- bour government following the election. However, he said that "now after MaltaToday's probe, the government has demanded immediate repayment." Piscopo said that the coopera- tive has replied to the govern- ment through its lawyers and is demanding more breathing time and the facility to pay the loan in installments. However, a quick look at the cooperative's latest accounts sub- mitted to the Board of Coopera- tives, clearly shows that it is in fi- nancially dire straits. The 2014 audited accounts – submitted in February of this year – gave the cooperative an adverse opinion because it failed to recover over €56,000 from its commercial debtors and suffered a €37,105 loss. The auditors waved a red flag because the cooperative's finan- cial statements are significantly different from generally accepted accounting principles set in 2009 for small enterprises. The report, compiled by au- diting company Parker Randall Turner, said that "if these debts are not recovered, the coopera- tive will be in a critical situation and will not be in a position to re- pay its creditors". Over and above the outstanding loan with the fisheries depart- ment, the cooperative owes some €90,000 in unpaid water and elec- tricity bills. The report said the cooperative is not in a position to make these repayments, however speaking to MaltaToday, Piscopo – who also happens to be the secretary gen- eral of the Board of Cooperatives – dismissed the cooperative's grim financial state and insisted that the cooperative will honour its agreement if the government agrees to accept its repayment conditions. Moreover, the cooperative in- sists that the outstanding water and electricity bills were clocked up by third parties. The cooperative is locked in a protracted legal battle with Lam- busa Maritime Company Limited, with which it had entered into an agreement for a fish import and export operation at the coopera- tive's premises in Marsaxlokk. In a court decision in 2014, the operating agreement was de- clared null and Lambusa Mari- time Company Limited was or- dered to pay €66,411 in unpaid operating fees, and €37,539 in electricity bills. The operator was also given 60 days to vacate the premises which the cooperative rents from the government. The court said that although the agreement with the govern- ment prohibits sub-letting of the premises, this was circumvented through the operating agreement reached between the cooperative and Lambusa Maritime Company Limited. However, the operator has ap- pealed and it insists that contrary to what was agreed in the original contract, the premises did not have the necessary planning and trade permits and could not oper- ate as a packaging plant. Moreover, Lambusa Maritime Company Limited, represented by Angelic Mifsud, told the court that the payments demanded by the cooperative are null because the premises are not insured and some €30,000 in government sub- sidies were used to pay for diesel instead of electricity. In 2013, Piscopo was caught importing diesel illegally when his vessel was found carrying 40,000 litres of diesel, 8,000 li- tres of which were allegedly being brought into Malta illegally. But in his judicial protest against the Customs director-general, Piscopo argued that other vessels found carrying undeclared diesel were offered the opportunity to enter into an administrative ar- rangement to pay the customs due on the fuel but he was not. Government slaps fishing cooperative with judicial letter over unpaid loan Paceville 'Some congestion' still expected in €32 million Regional Road tunnel proposed by Mott MacDonald JAMES DEBONO THE proposed Regional Road tun- nel will not entirely solve traffic problems, especially during the peak afternoon rush hour, when congestion is still foreseen clog- ging up Maltese roads, a report presented by consultants Mott Macdonald on Paceville states. The report, which forms part of the appendices to the proposed Paceville masterplan, shows that the construction of a 732-metre long tunnel which will cost €32 million, is the best option to ad- dress the increase in traffic created by the new high-rise developments that some of Malta's richest prop- erty magnates are clamouring for. According to the report, fore- casts for 2025 indicate that while traffic on the surface level will be acceptable at all times, the after- noon rush-hour will "likely" see "some congestion in the tunnel at the point where the tunnel meets the surface level". Studies show that new develop- ment in Paceville is expected to generate an extra 1,757 car trips in the afternoon rush hour. But the report also shows that even in the absence of new development the existing Regional Road is not cop- ing with traffic flows. The main benefit of the tunnel is that it frees up capacity at the sur- face level for local traffic directed towards Paceville. This capacity can therefore be used by the ad- ditional development in Paceville. Based on information from Transport Malta it is understood that 60% of present traffic on the road doesn't stop in Paceville or its environs, while 40% is local traffic directed to Paceville, Pembroke, Swieqi and northern Sliema. Therefore studies have been based on the assumption that 60% of traffic will be directed to the tunnel and 40% to the surface road. In this way local traffic will no longer interact with regional traffic. The studies exclude the develop- ment of a tunnel inside Paceville complementing the Regional Road tunnel. The problem with having two tunnels was that this might result in a situation where more local traffic will be using the Regional Road tunnel to access or exit the Paceville tunnel, instead of using the surface level. In this way at the tunnel level the traffic volumes will be too high to be accommo- dated in the tunnel. The Regional Road tunnel is planned with one lane in each di- rection, which will complement the surface level road, which will also have one lane in each direc- tion. The combination of tunnel and street level road has been giv- en a total capacity of 2,400 vehicles per direction per hour, reflecting that it will not have as much ca- pacity as a standard two-lane in each direction road. 60% of present traffic on the road doesn't stop in Paceville or its environs, while 40% is local traffic directed to Paceville, Pembroke, Swieqi and northern Sliema Pawlu Piscopo