Sant's stand on Brindisi terminal

The Times has misreported what opposition leader Alfred Sant said on Sunday and Tuesday regarding the Freeport imbroglio over the Brindisi terminal.

The Leader of the Opposition never said that last August the government bought shares in the Brindisi terminal company for Lm4 million. Possibly, The Times was confused by the campaign of misinformation launched this week by the government.

Last February the government bought for Lm149,127 the rest of the shares in the bankrupt Brindisi terminal, where it had a part stakeholding.

In August this year, just when it was buying Dar Malta in Brussels, the government pumped an additional investment of Lm4 million in the failed Brindisi venture. It was to this additional outlay that Dr Sant referred on Sunday.

Minister Austin Gatt reacted by claiming that this was all fabrications and an invention by Dr Sant.

On Tuesday, Dr Sant published a letter dated July 29, 2004 from the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance, to the chairman of Mimcol, the government investments agency, guaranteeing a short term loan that would be extended to Mimcol by the Bank of Valletta for €10 million and that would be repaid by the end of the year. On the basis of this guarantee, the Bank of Valletta could extend the monies to the Freeport for investing further in the failed Brindisi venture.

There is no provision in the 2004 government budget estimates for payments of roughly Lm4 million (€10 million) to the Freeport (just like there was no provision in the 2004 budget for the purchase of Dar Malta in Brussels). Supplementary (additional) estimates will be presented to Parliament next month, after the 2005 budget is debated by Parliament. Then, the loan guarantee can be converted into a full payment of taxpayers' funds from the Treasury to the bank, to cover the Freeport's "investment" of Lm4 million made in August in the failed Brindisi venture, on the back of the government's guarantee.

So much for fabrication and inventing. And so much for the hype surrounding the Freeport as a managerial and investment success.