Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/936285
8 News maltatoday SUNDAY 4 FEBRUARY 2018 INDIVIDUAL INVESTOR PROGRAMME PRELIMINARY MARKET CONSULTATION The Gozo Channel Group ('Gozo Channel') wishes to participate in the competitive tender process issued by the Maltese Ministry for Transport, Infrastructure and Capital Projects for a Public Service Concession Contract for the Provision of Passenger and Vehicle Ferry Services Between Malta and Gozo (the 'Tender'). The Tender was published on 26 January 2018 on the Maltese Government's e-Tenders website and the procurement documentation is available on: https://www.etenders.gov.mt/epps/cft/ prepareViewCfTWS.do?resourceId=4209736 In accordance with the Tender, the awardee of the Tender is required to provide conventional ferry services between Ċirkewwa (Malta) and Mġarr (Gozo), fast ferry services between Valletta (Malta) and Mġarr (Gozo) as public service obligations and is also requested to provide Concessionaire Additional Services (as defined in the Tender) with the fast ferry/ies between municipalities in Malta (including between municipalities in Malta and / or Gozo, or municipalities in Gozo and Malta but excluding and points of call within the Grand Harbour). Gozo Channel is the incumbent economic operator for the provision of conventional ferry services, and it therefore has the necessary experience, expertise and resources to provide those services. Gozo Channel is looking for a partner with whom to submit the bid for the Tender (the 'Partner') which has the necessary experience, expertise or resources to provide fast ferry services (and the Concessionaire Additional Services). Any interested party is expected to prove to Gozo Channel that it is in a position to meet the applicable specifications, requirements and criteria applicable to the fast ferry services as required by the Tender. The Partner is expected to commit exclusively to Gozo Channel's bid and it may not submit its own bid, participate as a member in a third party joint venture, consortium or other economic association, or accept to be named as a sub-contractor in a third party's bid. Gozo Channel will be the lead member of any commercial arrangement reached with the Partner on submitting the bid. Any interested parties who would be open to form an exclusive commercial arrangement with Gozo Channel for the submission of the bid for the Tender are requested to express their interest by sending an e-mail to eoisubmission@gozochannel.com by not later than 1700hrs CET of the 23 February 2018. Interested parties are to provide details of: • The vessel/s which will be made available for the provision of fast ferry services pursuant to the Tender together with a valid commercial vessel operating license (CVOL) and commercial vessel certificate (CVC) in accordance with Commercial Vessels Regulations (Subsidiary Legislation 499.23); and • Confirmation that (each of) the vessel/s proposed specifically comply with each and every one of the minimum specifications listed in Annex 2 Document B of the Tender. The interested party is required to specifically confirm and, where necessary, provide a detailed explanation and any other relevant information on the manner that each and every one of the 21 minimum specifications listed in Annex 2 Document B shall be satisfied; • Proposals on the Concessionaire Additional Services to be offered in accordance with Clause 2.6 and Annex 1A of the Tender; • The type/s of commercial arrangement/s which the interested party would be willing to participate in. After a past preliminary market study, Gozo Channel is looking favourably at a time charter arrangement with the prospective partner, and therefore, interested parties are invited to submit a specific proposal on that prospect along with any alternative commercial arrangements. Gozo Channel will not be in a position to access any submissions made by interested parties before 1700hrs CET of the 23 February 2018. This Preliminary Market Consultation is independent from any previous consultation carried out by Gozo Channel and any interested parties who applied to form an exclusive commercial arrangement with Gozo Channel on the basis of any previous consultation should re-apply in accordance with the terms hereof. Any queries in relation to this preliminary market consultation are to be sent to eoiqueries@ gozochannel.com by not later than 1700hrs CET of the 9 February 2018. The prospective Partner will be expected to reach an agreement with the Gozo Channel Group prior to the submission of the bid for the Tender by the Gozo Channel Group. 'Publishing golden passport citizens is discriminatory' says Identity Malta MATTHEW VELLA THE agency responsible for the sale of Maltese citizenship is refusing to give MaltaToday a list of citizens who acquired a passport through the Individual Investor Programme. Identity Malta turned down Mal- taToday's freedom of information request, saying that the information requested was already publicly avail- able. "Identity Malta Agency cannot discriminate between citizens of Malta as requested by the applicant." MaltaToday filed a complaint, ar- guing that citizenship laws do not directly prohibit the separate pub- lication of a list of 'IIP citizens' and that this was only a matter of policy. "The IIP itself is a scheme built on discrimination… it discriminates between future citizens who can acquire citizenship through natu- ralisation or by acquiring registra- tion through the IIP. Identity Malta is itself promoting a discriminatory route to Maltese citizenship; arguing that a separate list would discrimi- nate between IIP and non-IIP citi- zens is a smokescreen," MaltaToday said in its complaint to the agency. "The 'discrimination' is essential and has a public interest because the investment of so called 'IIP citizens' is directly linked to the reputation of the country and its economic growth." But Identity Malta also refused this complaint, saying that citizen- ship rules mandated the sole publi- cation of a single list of all persons. "Publishing lists of sub-categories of new citizens by reference to the method of acquisition of citizenship would violate the principle that all citizens are equal and have a right to be treated equally by the State," Identity Malta said. IDM also insisted that all citizens were equal after having acquired citizenship, and that the discrimina- tion in the acquisition of citizenship was no longer relevant at that point. "The request refers to the post- acquisition stage and the method of acquisition (except for the fact of falling into the categories of citizen- ship by registration on naturalisa- tion) is therefore no longer relevant at that stage." MaltaToday will be appealing the refusal with the Information and Data Protection Commissioner. IDM has also refused to give a breakdown of all the accredited agencies that had successfully sold the Individual Investor Programme. Malta's IIP has 154 agents pro- moting and selling citizenship to the global elite for €650,000 a pass- port. Applicants must also com- mit to acquire a property worth €350,000 or rent an apartment for five years for at least €16,000 per annum, and invest €150,000 in gov- ernment stocks. No data, however, is publicly avail- able about which of these agencies were successful at promoting their clients, who must pass through a due diligence exercise before being finally accepted as citizens by Iden- tity Malta. In its refusal, Identity Malta insist- ed that the information requested was confidential commercial infor- mation "in view of the reasonably predictable, substantially adverse effects on the financial and property interests of the Government and… insofar as the information requested could reasonably be expected to have a substantial adverse effect on the proper and efficient conduct of the operations of a public authority and the public interest that is served by non-disclosure outweighs the public interest in disclosure." The regulator for the IIP, an inde- pendent officer who reviews annual data on the sale of citizenships, al- ready publishes information on how many successful applications take place, as well as the geographical distribution of the applications. In 2016, a MaltaToday story on the residential properties of suc- cessful IIP citizens not being worth €350,000, led to the creation of a compliance unit at Identity Malta to investigate potential abuses. In an investigation carried out by the regulator of the IIP, it turned out that in the 13 cases selected by MaltaToday, 11 had leased their premises and in six of these cases the lease value was "nearly equal to the threshold" save for a €200 differ- ence. The regulator said this statistic im- plied the figure had been rounded upwards so that the rental would be in line with the IIP rules, or that the applicants had specifically se- lected a property that did not signifi- cantly exceed the minimum €16,000 threshold. Identity Malta started to request accredited agents to provide a quali- fied architect's declaration to con- firm the values of the properties being leased and purchased; and has set up a Compliance Unit tasked with monitoring and investigating potential abuses.