MP says government ignored $100m Fort St Elmo development proposal

Labour MP Charles Buhagiar yesterday called on the government to improve the administration of public properties.

He said it was shameful that prime sites such as Fort St Elmo were being allowed to fall into a state of neglect. Indeed, over the past few weeks, the government had received, and ignored, proposals from developers who wished to take over Fort St Elmo and invest over $100m in it in a non-speculative manner.

The Labour MP was speaking during the debate on a motion to transfer government properties to sports organisations, boy scouts and girl guides.

Mr Buhagiar said the government was, by far, the biggest land owner in Malta, yet the Lands Department for many years had been treated as a Cinderella department by different administrations, through no fault of the employees.

An example of the stagnation evident in the department was in the administration of the Rural Leases Scheme. The introduction of the scheme was a good step to ascertain who was actually working government land. Over 7,000 had applied under the scheme, but so far only some 200 applications had been processed, because of a lack of manpower. It was true that there were problems in some of the applications, but those which had no problems should have been cleared. Such delays were also leading to a loss of government revenue.

Another example of administrative problems and lack of control and enforcement was how people took over government land, and prompt action was not taken to evict them. To add insult to injury, some of those who had been caught had been allowed to get away with their abuse with a paltry penalty.

Another case of abuse was how the Verdala Hotel had remained closed while apartments were built nearby for speculation.

The sorry state of administration was such that the Lands Department itself had published an advert in the newspapers seeking office property of 5,000 square metres when the government was the biggest land and property owner in Malta and had many properties it could utilise for this purpose.

Mr Buhagiar insisted that the transfer of government properties should be accompanied by tighter safeguards. As the opposition had warned, the Fort Chambray development had run into problems, and the supposed underground car park at Floriana was breaking development conditions left, right and centre, and nobody was doing anything about it. At Birkirkara, a property had been transferred to a football club and much of it ended up as a MacDonalds restaurant.

In the case of properties transferred on emphyteusis, the government needed to ensure that such properties were not used for speculation. The clubs also needed to have the administrative capacity to administer those properties. It was easy for waterpolo clubs, given their location, to set up restaurants and create a revenue stream, but one should consider helping inland soccer clubs where creating such revenue was difficult.

The Minister for Justice and Home Affairs, Tonio Borg, who moved the motion on Monday, said some of the properties were being given on lease since the government did not possess sufficient title in its name to enable emphyteutical transfer.

He pointed out that one of the clubs being granted property was the Vikings Sailing Club of Haywharf, whose officials had asked for title over their property in Monday's The Times. Although the motion was tabled in parliament a month ago, it appeared they did not know about it.

Labour MP Joe Brincat said that while sporting activities were good in principle, one had to be careful in assigning a title to property, for this could mean that access would be limited. Such premises had to be open for all. When government property was transferred, it also needed to be ensured that such property was not assigned further.

Dr. Brincat said it was unfair that certain clubs were granted premises on emphyteusis or rent, which they then used as restaurants. This went counter to the argument that these premises were meant to be used only for sports.

One had to distinguish between sports and the business of sports and the government should be careful not to promote the latter instead of the former.

Nationalist MP David Agius referred to the comments on the business of sports, saying sports organisations required money to operate. They needed money to pay coaches, buy equipment and have everything up to standard. Finding sponsors and donors was not easy.

Setting up a restaurant would mean income which a sports club could use to augment its income.

Once a club did not reduce the sports area allocated to it, but was creative enough to create a financial source in order to keep its activities going, what was wrong in that?

Such clubs, however, should be transparent in their accounts. Tax incentives to businessmen supporting sports should also be considered, he said.

Education Minister Louis Galea said there had been substantial progress in the way such facilities were being allocated to qualifying organisations. That was not to deny that there was still a lot to be done to ensure the best possible use of these facilities, which involved some of the country's precious real estate.

Going over the allocations, Dr Galea said the government was particularly keen to bolster sailing and was in direct contact with the Royal Malta Yacht Club on the possibility of providing the club with suitable alternative accommodation in view of the Manoel Island project. Over the years the club had done a lot to put the Middle Sea Race on a strong international footing, and surely deserved to have better facilities.

Dr Galea said revenue the government would receive from the allocation of property would go to the Sports Fund and would be used to further help sports organisations all over the country.

But there still needed to be a lot more involvement by private firms in sponsoring the various sports practised.

Dr Galea said that beyond the undoubted value of sports for physical well being and character building, the economic value of sports needed to be explored further. Various organisations were already doing this proactively by attracting foreigners to their facilities. Sports could yet be a relevant factor for tourism.

Labour MP Stefan Buontempo said that with this resolution, private entities were being entrusted with the administration of public property. The transfer of this property was not a financial investment for the government but rather a social one. The government, however, had to act as a watchdog so as to ensure that the transferred land was not abused of.

It was very difficult to establish the values of the land in question. If one took as an example the football club in Pembroke and developed this site as a hotel, the value of the land would go up, inevitably.

That was why it was important that the government tabled the architects' plans in relation to the properties in question.

Dr Buontempo said the Malta Sports Council needed to encourage the use of these clubs by the public since this was one of the conditions laid down in the resolution, especially in areas such as Cottonera where sports facilities were limited. How aware were the Sedqa agency and orphanages that they could use these facilities?

This land should be used for social purposes apart from being using profitably by the clubs in question. These contracts had to serve their social purpose and it was up to the ministries concerned to ensure that the clubs made good use of this property.

The rest of the sitting will be reported tomorrow.