Both parties were wrong on original Manoel Island deal: Owen Bonnici

Both the Labour and Nationalist parties must assume blame for giving Tigné Point and Manoel Island to MIDI for 99 years, Owen Bonnici believes.

The Lands Minister admitted his party must shoulder some of the responsibility for that parliamentary decision taken in 2000, saying such a deal would be unthinkable today.

“Both parties were wrong,” Bonnici said while being interviewed on Il-KAZIN x Times of Malta this week. “It wouldn’t ever cross my mind to hand over an island to private investors.”

Bonnici’s perspective is more considered than that of his party leader Robert Abela, who has described the MIDI deal as one his [Nationalist] predecessor Eddie Fenech Adami had “given to his friends”.

Abela told journalists last year that the deal was tantamount to “public property theft”, adding that the private investors had “paid peanuts” for the concession.

"It is a concession of the Eddie Fenech Adami government... given to PN backers," the prime minister said.  

MIDI director Alec Mizzi told Il-KAZIN x Times of Malta that the original valuation for the deal was carried out under an Alfred Sant-led Labour government. Successive governments ramped up the valuation, Mizzi said.

The original valuation for the concession was priced at Lm12 million (€28 million). MIDI ultimately paid a total premium of Lm39.5m (€92.2m), with Lm21.32 million (€49.7m) of that owed for the Manoel Island portion of the concession.  

The MIDI concession was unanimously approved in parliament in June 2000. MIDI has since developed Tigné Point but has agreed to hand back Manoel Island and Fort Tigné to the state for €43 million, following massive public pressure.

The government has vowed to turn Manoel Island into a national park, in line with activists’ wishes.

Former prime minister Sant last year described his backing of the MIDI deal one of his biggest mistakes as a politician. Bonnici told Il-KAZIN x Times of Malta the admission was admirable.

“I have huge respect for Alfred Sant, and my respect grew when he said the concession was a mistake. I appreciate his honesty,” the minister said. “I could argue that priorities were different back then, and so on. But I am not going to do that. It was wrong.”

Bonnici sought to defend Abela’s description of the concession as “theft” by offering a broad definition of the term.

“When private investors do better out of a concession of public land than the public, that’s theft,”  the minister said.