Government selling off Sea Malta cheaply - Sant

The government is trying to get rid of Sea Malta, and if it does not manage to sell it off cheaply, it wants to close it down on the excuse that it is not viable, Opposition Leader Alfred Sant said yesterday.

He said that after years of neglecting Sea Malta, the government was negotiating its sale with just one company. Moreover, he said, the government had made it clear to this company that if this sale did not take place, it would close down Sea Malta.

"This is no way to deal with a privatisation," he said.

Dr Sant said although last November a second party submitted a written proposal expressing interest in Sea Malta, this had been ignored.

He denied that Sea Malta needed Lm7.5 million to get back on its feet, but said it needed no more than the Lm4 million which the government had invested in the failed port of Brindisi.

Moreover, he said, in the past years the company had prepared a restructuring and modernisation programme, but this had been ignored by the government. He said that in the last years the company had started to recover, and its losses began to drop. He said investing in Sea Malta would have improved its situation, but the government had always refused to do this.

Dr Sant said there was also a proposal to invest in a new ship for Sea Malta, but the government never committed itself to it.

The Opposition Leader denied that the government is giving financial support to the company every six months, saying that it was only a letter of comfort, which was being renewed with the bank every six months.

Dr Sant said that although it was being said that it was not imperative for the company to be owned by the state to guarantee its running, since there was a private service contract. However, he said, the penalties for the non-completion of the contract were "ridiculous" and did not give a guarantee that the ship service between Malta and Italy would go on.

"This is a big mistake, which will negatively affect local business," he said.

Dr Sant said that although the government was saying that it was subsidising the company by Lm150,000 a year under the public service contract, at the same time the government was giving Lm1.5 million to keep Gozo Channel in operation.

The Labour leader said that apart from the Maltese government, the Sea Malta shareholders included Libyan and neighbouring interests, but none of these had any interest in keeping the company going. He said although it was only the Maltese government which could show interest in the company, this was not happening.

Dr Sant also gave his and his colleagues' condolences to IT and Investment Minister Austin Gatt, whose mother passed away on Friday.