AN demands explanation on Tigné Point project tender changes

Azzjoni Nazzjonali is perplexed at how the government allowed "massive" changes to be made to the original tender for the extensive prime site Midi development in Sliema.

It questioned why so many changes were allowed after the awarding of the contract.

Speaking about the "rape" of Tignè Point, AN deputy leader Anġlu Xuereb said the Maltese had the right to know the facts about the development and ask the government for an explanation.

After awarding the letter of intent to Midi, the government had changed the conditions of the original tender completely, he said.

"We are sure that, given such a massive change to the original tender, there would have been many more interested bidders and the government would have managed to gain a much better deal on behalf of the Maltese," Mr Xuereb said.

Now that the development is planned to be increased more than tenfold, the impact on the infrastructure and the residents will be much bigger, Mr Xuereb said.

Instead of a tourism- and office-oriented development, it was a real estate project, which was much more lucrative, he added.

Midi could not be compared to Viset, an infrastructural project on a temporary lease from which the economy was gaining. In its first five years, Viset invested over €30 million (Lm12,880,000) in infrastructure and pumped more than €350 million (Lm150,260,000) into the economy, Mr Xuereb said.

Viset was paying the government 15 per cent on turnover from the landside activities and 10 per cent on the seaside revenue as rent, with a minimum of €582,000 (Lm249,852) per annum. If Midi had to pay the same rent, on a total of 500 apartments, it should be paying about €35 million (Lm15,050,000), Mr Xuereb calculated.

AN asked whether it should expect the same from SmartCity, where a development brief did not even exist, and whether the government could say how many real estate developments it would allow.