Ministry defends relaunch of superyachts facility privatisation

The Finance Ministry this evening defended its decision to relaunch the privatisation of the superyacht facility of Malta Shipyards, saying that the person involved in bribery allegations during the first privatisation process had been suspended and would not be involved.

The Labour Party earlier in the day said the government should have awaited the conclusion of the police investigation before relaunching the process.

The Ministry, however, said the new process was completely separate from the old one, other than that the same facility was involved. The process will be handled by the Privatisation Unit, against which no allegations had been made, the ministry pointed out.

It added that completion of the priovatisation process would mean new investment and more jobs for the economy.

It also pointed out that the first process was stopped after the bids were deemed to be inadequate. Finance Minister Tonio Fenech had explained on February 2 that none of the bids was satisfactory, and a call for re-bidding did not bring much improvement.