Government trying to reduce project by offering alternative site at Fort St Angelo

The government is trying to reduce the size of a new apartment block going up at Vittoriosa by offering an area within Fort St Angelo as an alternative, it emerged in parliament yesterday.

Opposition infrastructure spokesman Charles Buhagiar, speaking during the budget debate on the Infrastructure Ministry, said the apartment block, forming part of the Cottonera project, was a major eyesore and would be a monument of how the government had spoilt the Cottonera bastions. He warned that the opposition would be strongly against any government attempt to correct its mistake by transferring parts of the fort to the developer instead.

Infrastructure Minister Francis Zammit Dimech, in his reply, confirmed that talks were in hand on alternative development for the volume of the apartment block.

He said that even before the opposition started criticising the apartment block, the government had intervened and insisted that its size be reduced by 22 apartments.

The talks now being held involved those areas of Fort St Angelo which had been spoilt by a Labour government when it tried to convert the fort into a tourist complex. The area included tourist apartment buildings which were never used and a pool which to date remained an eyesore.

He could assure the opposition that if agreement were reached, the whole deal would be presented to parliament.

The government, he added, had already removed a number of eyesores in and around Fort St Angelo, including the Chinese buildings and the bridge leading to the fort.

In his speech, Mr Buhagiar said that the Midi consortium, which is responsible for the Manoel Island project, was refusing to hand over Lm1.4 million due to the government before it was given vacant possession of the land and it was demanding Lm200,000 as penalties in terms of the property transfer agreement.

This situation, he said, was "ridiculous" because the government should be receiving money from the developer and not have to fork out money itself.

The matter was being made worse by the fact that attempts to settle the issue were being made by an official of Dr Zammit Dimech's private secretariat who was not legally empowered to conduct such work.

This official, Albert Caruana, had proposed to Midi that if it paid up what was owed to the government, minus Lm200,000, he could save it about Lm90,000.

Midi had shown interest in the proposal and Dr Caruana had therefore asked the Finance Ministry for the go-ahead. The Finance Ministry had agreed and asked Dr Caruana to arrange for the funds to be paid to the government by December 15 so that they could feature in this year's government accounts. Midi subsequently agreed with the arrangement.

Mr Buhagiar said what had taken place was serious and open to abuse, not least because it was only the Lands Department that was legally empowered to deal over government properties.

Replying, Dr Zammit Dimech said Dr Caruana was projects coordinator at his ministry and deserved to be praised for his work.

He said it was scandalous for Mr Buhagiar to have only quoted part of correspondence on the penalties of Lm210,000 and the work being done by Dr Caruana to reduce the government's exposure to them.

The correspondence described how it was suggested that Midi could postpone some of its payments so that it could save interest. The last sentence, which Mr Buhagiar had not quoted, said that "in this way, Midi would have still saved Lm103,000 in interest and groundrent and the government would not be liable to pay the penalties incurred, which amount to Lm210,000".

In this way, Dr Zammit Dimech said, the government would be saving penalties of Lm107,000.

In his speech Mr Buhagiar called for adequate funding for restoration projects.

He complained that funds were squandered when, of the Lm55,000 being used on the restoration of Portes des Bombes, Lm7,500 went for a large poster to hide the visual impact of the works.

Referring to restoration in Valletta, he said the sites that were being restored did not have a direct impact on people's lives. He complained that there was a conflict of interest in that the chairman of the Valletta Rehabilitation Committee was also involved in architectural projects which had won many of the tenders for Valletta rehabilitation over the years.

What had happened to the plans for the paving of part of Merchants' Street and the pedestrianisation of central Valletta? Indeed, what was being done to improve traffic management and parking facilities in the city?

Fort St Elmo, which occupied a fifth of Valletta, was being allowed to fall into shambles, Mr Buhagiar said.

Turning to the restoration of Cottonera, Mr Buhagiar said plans were not being observed and the work that was being done was taking too long.

At Mdina, the project to run all wires underground and for the paving of the streets was taking far too long. The forecourt of Vilhena Palace had been well restored, he said, but priority should really have been given to stabilising the foundations on which the palace was built before it ended up with just a forecourt.

When he spoke on the Cottonera project, Mr Buhagiar said the project had been reduced to massive speculation. A total of Lm2.5 million had been paid by one consortium to another for the site adjacent to the casino and the government only got Lm100 for the casino permit.

Mr Buhagiar referred to the government's decision to shelve the City Gate project and said this meant an important electoral promise had not been kept.

Dr Zammit Dimech said he was surprised by Mr Buhagiar's criticism of the sheeting covering the Portes des Bombes restoration. This covering was seen as a necessity given the importance of the site. Indeed, the government had even been offered a sponsorship of the restoration so long as advertising boards could be set up but this was obviously rejected.

Dr Zammit Dimech said problems raised by the Chamber of Architects on the Merchants' Street paving project had been ironed out and adjudication of the tenders would be started in the new year.

Preparatory work had been done for a major capital project that would eventually be carried out at Fort St Elmo.

Dr Zammit Dimech said the building of the yacht marina at Cottonera had to follow detailed studies, including an archaeological investigation of the seabed, but the permits were issued last October and the work would start shortly. Permits for the rehabilitation of the quays were issued in the same way.

Designs for new parking facilities were being considered by MEPA.

Referring to the criticism on speculation, Dr Zammit Dimech said that once it had been decided that this sort of project was to be handled by the private sector, the government was not interested on profits made through the transfer of properties by the developers.

If private companies were not allowed to make their profits, they would not involve themselves in such large projects in the first place.

Dr Zammit Dimech observed that over the past four years the government had spent Lm14.5 million through his ministry, which would rise to Lm16.8 million by the end of next year. That included Lm4.2 million on restoration and rehabilitation projects over the past year, which would rise to Lm5.3 million next year.

After giving an extensive list of the rehabilitation and restoration projects held by the ministry, Dr Zammit Dimech said the works at Mdina could not be carried out any faster, particularly because of the discovery of archaeological remains, some of which would be preserved.

He said a detailed study had been carried out on the state of Vilhena Palace, with the experts also being asked to recommend rehabilitation methods.

It was the government's intention to move ahead with the City Gate project including the rebuilding of the Opera House site, but that was not a priority given the state of public finances.