Labour demands more explanations on superyachts tender

Mimcol chief executive Mario Mizzi, formerly a member of the Privatisation Unit, is still suspended pending the police investigations into allegations of a bribery attempt.

The privatisation of Malta Superyachts was stopped on 2 February 2010, when the government claimed that none of the offers had been satisfactory. The process was restarted on Wednesday, 21 July.

The superyacht privatisation has already been stopped twice: the first time was in November 2009 when government said the bids had been unsatisfactory. But the other side of the coin was that one of the bidding consortia had flagged the competitive process, after two individual bidders – Palumbo and Manoel Island Consortium, later the respective winning bidders for the Malta Shipyards and the Manoel Island yacht yard – were allowed to present a joint bid.

Labour MP Charles Mangion said finance minister Tonio Fenech’s claims that it was only Mizzi, and not the Privatisation Unit itself, that was under investigation, showed the “lack of clear direction” in attracting productive investment to Malta.

“His excuse does not make it clear why a police investigation into the matter was only started after the bribery allegation was made public by the Opposition leader,” Mangion said.

Joseph Muscat had in fact revealed in parliament that a member of Lawrence Gonzi’s secretariat, Leonard Callus, had been told about the Mario Mizzi allegation – as far back as September 2009. Instead of informing Gonzi, it would seem Callus only informed finance minister Tonio Fenech who himself did not report it to the police, but asked Privatisation Unit members to deny the allegations.

“Labour believes it was wiser for government not to issue the tender while the investigations are ongoing… government is not appreciating the essential element to attract serious investors to Malta is to ensure transparency, level playing field, and integrity.”