'No funds' for interior restoration of old church

The Resources and Infrastructure Ministry has denied that any funds were ever allocated for the restoration of the interior of the church of Sta Caterina d'Italia in Valletta, adding that such works were not in the pipeline due to other priorities.

It was reacting to an article in The Times on Monday which reported the cries of the Italian community in Malta and its parish priest for the restoration of the interior of the baroque church, which has been in disuse since works on its façade were carried out over four years ago.

Fr Gino Gauci, backed by Italian restorers, asked that "the promise made over four years ago to restore the entire church" be fulfilled. They maintained that funds had been allocated for the complete restoration of the church under the Fourth Italo-Maltese financial protocol. They said they could not understand why the interior had been ignored, leaving it in a state of neglect.

Restorer Giuseppe Mantella questioned where the money to complete the project had gone.

But the ministry said that even though studies on the interior of the church had been carried out no tenders for the works were ever issued because no funds had been allocated.

The tender for the restoration of the church's exterior had been issued by the Contracts Department in February 2000, a ministry spokesman said.

Quoting clause 1.1 (scope of contract) of document A of the tender, the spokesman said it clearly stated that: "This contract comprises the restoration of all external façades and roof (including dome and lantern) of the church of Santa Caterina d'Italia in Valletta".

Since the cost of the restoration was to be reimbursable under the Fourth Italo-Maltese financial protocol, the firm tasked with the job had to be Italian, the spokesman said.

The final bill for restoration works on the exterior of the church amounted to Italian lire 1,177,469,550, which today translates to Lm263,925, and which was slightly less than the contract value, awarded at Italian lire 1,182,826,100, today the equivalent of Lm265,126.

A further Italian lire 145,000,000, which today works out at Lm32,501, was spent on the purchase of scaffolding, still being used for other projects. (The total amount of money spent on the restoration of the church's exterior was Italian lire 1,322,469,550, equivalent to Lm296,426.)

All expenses incurred by the Works Division on the job, which was part of the forts and fortifications project, financed by the Fourth Italo-Maltese financial protocol, were duly forwarded to the Finance Ministry for re-imbursement by the Italian authorities, the spokesman said, adding that the Works' Division was not responsible for the procedure.

The church's façade had been blackened by pollution and its restoration was carried out four years ago on the initiative of the Restoration Unit which then formed part of the Environment Ministry. Today, that unit falls under the umbrella of the Resources and Infrastructure Ministry, which was also asked whether it had any intentions of continuing with the restoration of the interior of the church.

The spokesman said it was working on a number of other projects and did not have the Lm150,000 required to carry on with the job.

Over the last two years, the ministry has been involved in the restoration of dozens of chapels and monuments and has also embarked on an ambitious project to restore Malta's 25 kilometres of fortifications, the spokesman said.

"In this regard, the ministry is preparing a detailed document to apply for EU Structural Funds to restore these unique fortifications in the Mediterranean," he said.

The church of Santa Caterina d'Italia is one of the many sites that has to be restored and it will have to wait its turn, he added.

Getting to the bottom of who was responsible for the restoration of the church was no mean feat. Francis Zammit Dimech was at the helm of the ministry responsible for the project at the time; the then director general of the Works' Division is no longer and the Restoration Unit now falls under the Resources and Infrastructure Ministry, which is now headed by another minister.

Fr Gauci intends to present a petition to the President and to the Prime Minister and has requested an appointment.

After a one-off Sunday Mass at the church, he told the congregation that the issue would not end this week, with the presentation of the petition, but "we will continue to bang at the right, responsible and friendly doors until what we are asking for materialises".

The idea was to gather the forces together to push for the immediate restoration of the church by those who were responsible, Fr Gauci said, calling on the Maltese government to recognise and show appreciation for the assistance it received from its Italian counterpart, which, "through five financial protocols, has somehow helped to transform the island".