Midi reacts sharply to AN official's comments

Midi Consortium has hit out at comments made by Azzjoni Nazzjonali's deputy leader Angelo Xuereb on the project in Tigné.

It noted that Mr Xuereb had chosen the eve of an election to raise these issues when he had every opportunity to challenge the awarding of the tender between 1993 and 2000 when the lease agreement was finally signed by the government and Midi plc.

Mr Xuereb on Thursday questioned how the government had allowed "massive" changes to be made to the original tender for the extensive prime site of the Midi development in Sliema after the contract had been awarded.

Midi said that Mr Xuereb was part of a consortium that bid unsuccessfully for this project back in 1993. Following the issue by the government to Midi of a letter of intent in 1993, the consortium said, the parties engaged in long and detailed negotiations during which the parameters of the development brief were shifted considerably by three successive governments in order to increase the financial terms in their favour. These negotiations resulted in the development volumes that constitute the outline development permit issued by Mepa in 1999, which form the basis of the lease agreement between the government and Midi plc.

The consortium added that the permit was subject to public consultations and supported by extensive studies and reports on the impact of the project on the economy, the environment and public infrastructure.

The final agreement was also subject to scrutiny by the Public Accounts Committee of the House of Representatives, whose task is to audit public deals, and, finally, to a debate on the project and on the lease agreement in Parliament, where it was approved unanimously.

"Mr Xuereb alleges that ours is a short-term project intended to make a fast return for the investors when even cursory research will conclude that it in fact includes substantial infrastructural, restoration, hospitality, commercial and office components. The motives behind the gentleman's allegations are obvious and we do not need to add more to the debate," Midi said.