Life Sciences Centre to cost additional €10 million

Malta Enterprise executive chairman Alan Camilleri's decision this week not to have his contract renewed - citing personal reasons to accompany his partner in Germany for medical specialist training - has raised a few eyebrows: under intense media scrutiny after increasing service charges for industrial park space, questions are now being raised about Camilleri's handling of the construction of the Life Sciences Centre, which will cost €10 million more than the initial estimate.

A Finance Ministry spokesperson confirmed the over-budgeted expense with MaltaToday: "The initial project for a Life Sciences Centre - estimated at €20 million - as had been submitted to the European Commission for funding, changed due to the choice of the location and the expansion of the project to include an incubation centre and more laboratory space.

"The cost-benefit analysis was performed and fully accepted by the Commission. The enlarged project based on two phases will see Phase I completed with the help of funding from the European Regional Development Fund, while the infrastructural works and parts of Phase II done through additional funding invested by Malta Enterprise."

Asked how much the project will cost, the spokesperson said: "Central government has retained its original contribution to the project. The expansion of the incubation centre at Kordin was re-scoped, with the expansion now integrated within the BioMalta Campus. The total cost of the extended project will therefore be of €30 million."

Since the project will now cost an additional €10 million, the EU will fork out €16 million through the ERDF funding, while the government and Malta Enterprise will invest €4m and €10m respectively.

The BioMalta Campus will be a knowledge cluster between the University of Malta, Mater Dei Hospital and the Life Sciences industry on a 13,500 square-metre campus, that will focus on attracting to Malta life sciences and the bio-medical industry.

Camilleri was appointed as chairman of Malta Enterprise and Malta Industrial Parks on 21 May 2008, on a €70,000 salary that includes health cover, paid mobile, landline and internet fees, a chauffeured car and other hospitality allowances.

Priot to that, Camilleri was chairman and CEO of Dhalia Group after having served as executive director of the National Euro Changeover Committee during 2007.

Camilleri cut his teeth as the Communications Coordinator to Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, since his days as social policy minister, and was also responsible for the organisation of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in November 2005.

His appointment as ME chairman in 2008 was down to his "solid relationship with the private sector" and "deep insight and knowledge into the needs of enterprise and small businesses", finance minister Tonio Fenech had said.

Politicall, both Camilleri and his brother Ivan, the Times's correspondent in Brussels, are renowned for their staunch Nationalist sympathies. In 2004, EU Commissioner John Dalli, after resigning as foreign minister, said Alan Camilleri was part of a "conspiracy" to oust him from Cabinet.

"We know how this clique was formed, in the press, the Sunday Times, The Times, and Where's Everybody... they ganged up together with Ivan Camilleri [then a PBS journalist] and Alan Camilleri [spokesperson for Lawrence Gonzi at the time of Dalli's resignation]," Dalli had said.

One of Camilleri's first decisions inside ME was a memo issued to all ME employees, demanding trimmed moustaches, no dangling earrings, light make-up, regular showers, fresh breath, and a maximum of 'one bracelet' per wrist.

Last year, ME imposed a 1,500% increase on the service charge imposed on factories, which was met with anger among industrialists, as factory operators discovered that their annual service charges rose from 42c per square metre, to a full €7 per square metre.

Lately, he was also taken to task for his decision to issue direct orders amounting to hundreds of thousands of euros for the renovation of the temporary premises at the former nurses' quarters at the defunct St Luke's Hospital. The new premises are also expected to have significant overruns, but this is being kept as a close-guarded secret. The lavish ME offices in Gwardamangia cost a whopping €3.87 million, however ME's permanence is not expected to run beyond 2015 when the €200 million Corporate Village project in Mriehel, is completed. Corporate Village is to have ME and the VAT and Inland Revenue Departments as its first tenants.

Camilleri also recently sued MaltaToday for libel after the newspaper reported that the new premises at the old hospital were used to host a New Year's Eve party.