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Minister will reconstitute national lotto department if Maltco wins injunction
Government will run lotteries itself if Maltco wins injunction against call for tenders, finance minister tells court.
20 December 2011, 12:00am
Karl Stagno-Navarra
Karl Stagno-Navarra
3 min read
Maltco was granted a seven-year tenure for the operation of the national lotteries which was extended for a year, up to July 2012.
Finance Minister Tonio Fenech has warned that the government will be forced to reconstitute the lotto department once again, if it is not allowed to go ahead with a new call for tenders for the private operation of the national lottery.
He was testifying in the court of Joseph Zammit McKeon, which is hearing submissions from lotto operator Maltco for an injunction on the call for tenders for the operation of the national lotteries.
Maltco was granted a seven-year tenure for the operation of the national lotteries which was extended for a year, up to July 2012. But the government informed the company in March it will be issuing a new call for tenders in 2012.
The court will now decide in the coming days whether the preliminary injunction currently in force is to stay.
The attorneys of Gtech - the local representative of Italian lotteries operator Lottomatica - asked the court to be part of the procedures as a prospective bidder in the call for tenders, claiming they would be prejudiced in their interest to do business in Malta and participate in the call for tenders.
But Judge Zammit McKeon threw out their request, despite the Attorney General's own submission that European jurisprudence backed the participation of third parties in such cases; stating that Maltese law had not yet been updated to transpose the cited jurisprudence.
Finance Minister Tonio Fenech said it was a Cabinet decision to issue a call for tenders for the renewal of the national lottery licence, following the expiry of the Maltco licence. According to the licence conditions, the government could extend the licence for either seven years or just one.
Fenech said the lotteries' concession was considered to be of high national importance given the economic situation, which is why a call for tender had to be issued.
Fenech was then asked by the Court what damages government would suffer if the call for tenders had to be halted, and the minister said it would have no other option but to re-establish the lotto department and organise the games itself.
Fenech said this would cost the country substantial financial income, and that Maltco had every right to participate in a clear and transparent call for tender.
Maltco's legal counsel Prof. Ian Refalo however argued that government had acted beyond its remit in taking a decision not to consult Maltco over the renewal of the seven-year damage.
Refalo argued that Maltco would suffer 'patrimonial damages' since the way things had been done, it looked like Maltco would be put out of business and obliged to hand over its business to some else.
Refalo said that government had to consider a seven-year renewal on the basis of Maltco's good performance.
Attorney General Peter Grech and the Lotteries and Gaming Authority's legal counsel Joseph Vella however stressed that Maltco's contract stipulated that the licence condition was valid for seven years.
Additionally, Maltco's accounts had provided for the payment of a €17 million concession fee to the government, spread over a period of eight years: the seven-year licence and a one-year extension.
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It should NEVER have been privatized. It was one of the Government Departments that never made a loss.
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Could you just imagine what a whorl wing the PN and their lap dogs would have generated had anyone in the PL dared come up with such a statement? The PN can do and say anything, others must be holier than the pope.
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They suddenly realised they were loosing their pants off to Maltco, did you see the revenue the company generated. Why not allow other lotto companies to open and compete. Unbelievable naive (or maybe there is something underhanded).
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Dear minister now you got the chance to get back what you gave on a silver plate.Public lotto MUST be in Government hands because it is a goldmine that we all citizens can get something out of it
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This so called nationalist government has no 'nationalistic' features left in it at all. It has managed to dismantle and sell everything that was owned and run by us, the Maltese, to foreigners on the grounds that we, the Maltese, are CWIEC MALTIN. What is so ‘nationalist’ about a political party when all it does during its years of tenure is to have all and every national enterprise owned by the nation sold off and run by this and that foreign holdings. History repeating itself, the nationalist party has always been the lackey of the foreign forces.
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Lil ' man in the street ' nghidlu li issa missu nduna kemm ghandna nies li jaraw biss sal-ponta ta' mniehorhom. Ghamlu froga meta bieghu il-Mid-Med ban bil-karawett imbaghad raw kif dan gabar il-flus li hallas f'kemm trodd salib ! Izda ma tghallmu xejn, ghax ipprivatizzaw il-lottu, lotteriji etc.. u tawhom lil kumpanija barranija. U regghu raw din il-kumpanija taghmel il-miljuni kbar li spiccaw barra minn Malta bhal ma gara fil-kas tal-Mid-Med bank mill-H.S.B.C. li issa, bil-wicc tost kollu, se jghalqu numru ta' ferghat bla ma jghatu kas tal-problemi li se joholqu lin-nies, specjalment lil-anzjani ! VERU GVERN INKOMPETENTI !
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Le hi,issa riesqa l-elezzjoni ghallura qeghdin jaraw min fejn ser igibu il flus biex iroxxuhom,pero din d darba il poplu mhux ser jafdhom bhal ma gara f'1996.Onfoh rih.
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Ara vera gidra, l-ewwel ipprivatizza l-lottu w issa ghaliex konxju minn kemm qed jghamlu flus irrida lura.
Imissu jhalli sa Lulju sa kemm tghalaq is-sena li ghad fadlilha il-Maltco imbaghad jerga jiehu kollox f'idu.Ministru tal-INJORANZI u mhux tal-Finanzi.
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Anke Gerita il-germuda kapaci torganizza il-lottu; kien hemm bzonn il-Griegi u Alla jghina li-Taljani? Gibtuna lampa stampa! Ifrah gahan Malti u gerger ghax issa ghandek kemm tridt cukkulata imma mhux bizzejjed flus biex thallas id-dawl!
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Ara stenbah Tonio!
Why in Pete's sake was our National Lottery Department privatised in the first place?
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Sure, first prise 500 Euro a week for 4 years.
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U ghaliex ma nergghux inzommu l-lottu ahna? issa l-Maltco ghalmuna kif irridu mmexxu biex naqilghu l-miljuni u terga dawn il-miljuni jibqghu hawn mhux imorru fi bwiet il-barranin. Ja Gvern qum minn dik ir-raqda li tinsab fiha ghamel xi haga ta' gid ghal Malta qabal titlef is-siggu. Taf kemm miljuni hargu minn Malta ghal ghand il-Maltco hux sur Ministru. U l-partit tal-labour ghandu jara din l-affari sewwa u jekk hemm bzonn jiddikjara minn issa li kif jitla fil-gvern il-loghob tal-lottu u dak kollu li qed taghmel bhalissa l-kumpanija Maltco jsir minn nies tal-GVERN u hadd iktar ghal gid ta' MALTA.
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good move by the Govt
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What does Maltco expect? If Government can strike a better deal with someone else, who cares that Maltco will be out of business after their contract expires? They have hauled out of Malta millions of Euro during their seven year contract, so it was a good move by the Minister to warn of the re-constitution of the lotto department if the injunction stays. The only thing i can say against is that our local laws should have been updated to EU standards, so that this impasse would not have been arrived at.
