Updated | Muscat must come clean over Café Premier bailout - PN

'By Muscat's own yardstick, he should resign over Cafe Premier bailout' - PN.

The Opposition has accused Prime Minister Joseph Muscat of taking the country for a ride for denying having ever discussed the €4.2 million Café Premier bailout during a meeting he admitted having had Cities Entertainment director Mario Camilleri, before the election.

“There are too many coincidences that indicate that Muscat is not telling the truth when he denies having reached a pre-electoral agreement to settle the company’s debts,” PN leader Beppe Fenech Adami said, adding that the Café Premier never reopened its doors the day after the general election.

“No one believes that Muscat didn’t speak about the agreement when, only a few days after he was appointed Prime Minister, the company sent him an email requesting a meeting.”

The company director on 4 April 2013 requested a meeting with Muscat, a meeting that took place a few days later. “Joseph Muscat had personally started negotiating the €4.2 million settlement,” Fenech Adami added.

Addressing a press conference at the PN headquarters, Fenech Adami insisted that the Prime Minister’s direct involvement was a grievous matter: “This case stinks and Muscat has a lot to answer for. He must personally shoulder political responsibility.”

“If Muscat had to use his own yardstick used during the electoral campaign, then he should resign.”

Quoting directly from the Auditor General’s report released earlier this week, Fenech Adami said the Prime Minister himself had indicated how the matter should be approached, and on 11 July, Muscat indicated his “willingness to meet during the following week”.

The matter, he said, was subsequently brought up for discussion in a meeting with OPM. The PM then proposed that government tables an offer of €3.5 million next of tax, that is an offer of €3.9 million.

The final payment made by the government was of €4.2 million. Insisting that there was nothing illegal in paying commissions, Fenech Adami said it was “unacceptable and strange” that commissions are paid from taxpayers’ monies.

Nationalist MP Ryan Callus said it was “strange” that Muscat side-lined the civil service, going against all established practice adopted in similar decisions. Callus asked why the Government Property Department was not involved and instead an OPM advisor was appointed when the same job was usually carried out by the department’s personnel.

Callus said the government already had a court case in an attempt to collect back money owed to the government.

The PN is putting pressure on the government “to come clean on this case”, Fenech Adami said when asked whether the Opposition would be taking the matter to parliament.

“It has become common practice for the Prime Minister to take to Twitter rather than answering his questions. We will continue to place pressure in any way possible.”

He said that one did not exclude the possibility for the Auditor General’s report to be scrutinised in parliament or before the Public Accounts Committee.

The Prime Minister has now set up a committee to evaluate how things took place. “Setting up committees is not enough. Muscat should read the report and understand that responsibility has to be shouldered. He cannot continue hiding behind ‘lesson learned’ and setting up committees to avoid answering,” Fenech Adami said.

In a reaction, the Labour Party said it was the PN that lost all credibility and “Simon Busuttil’s allegations are total inventions”.

“There was no meeting over Café Premier before the general election,” the PL said. It added that the Police had investigated the case and found nothing illegal. The Auditor General had full access to documents and didn’t find anything illicit.

It added that the Labour Party in government did not fear taking the decisions to collect back €1 million owed by the owners. Insisting that Simon Busuttil “couldn’t give any lessons”, it said that the site will be used for public purposes.

The PL said that days before the general election, the former Nationalist government gave  restaurateur Raymond Vella, owner of the now-demolished Mare d'Oro restaurant in Fekruna Bay, Xemxija, over 5,6000 square metres of land in Wied Ghollieq in San Gwann and Ta' Xghajrat in Swieqi, valued at  €4.3 million.

It said that the compensation was given against every procedure and without any request from any department. The PL said the PN had also paid Valletta kiosks’ owners thousands of euros to buy back the permits.

“With his unfounded allegations against the government, Simon Busuttil is simply measuring everything with his own yardstick,” the PL said.