Property development firm MIDI plc has hit out at db Group's CEO for claiming the company is behind on its concession payments.
On Sunday, db Group CEO Arthur Gauci said in an interview that MIDI had not been investigated despite having halted concession payments to the government in 2012.
“MIDI were given 23 years to pay, they only developed the real estate part, and have been not paying since 2012. Why did the NAO not investigate this?” he asked.
MIDI is the company behind major developments at Manoel Island and Tigne' Point.
Gauci argued that db Group, which has faced staunch opposition over its City Centre development project plans for St George's Bay, had been "unfairly singled out" for criticism.
He drew comparisons with other major land concessions and said that the company's St George's Bay project was the only one which the government had sought an independent price evaluation for.
But MIDI hit back, claiming Gauci's statement about the company being behind on its payments was "false and misleading".
“All payments of ground rent and cash premia due by MIDI PLC up to end 2019 have been settled in full in line with the terms detailed in the deed," it said in a statement sent to Times of Malta.
MIDI listed a series of events related to its Manoel Island and Tigné Point projects.
It noted that it had been granted a concession for the sites through a public deed dated June 15, 2000. A 99-year period of temporary emphyteusis began that month.
Parliament had unanimously agreed to the concession in January of that year.
The deed includes total payments of €274 million, MIDI said, of which €60 million represents deferred payments to the government, €181 million in ground rent for the duration of the lease to the government and €33 million worth of restoration and infrastructural obligations.
Although the credit in the deed for restoration and infrastructural works amounted to €33 million, the actual amount will total around €90 million on completion of the works, MIDI said, adding that to date the company has incurred €21 million on restoration projects including Fort Manoel, Fort Tigne, the Garden Battery, St Luke’s Garrison Chapel at Tigné, St George’s funerary Chapel at Manoel Island and the Cattle Shed.