A legal exception invoked by the government in a deal with Bank of Valletta over the House of Four Winds “was never used for such a purpose before”, a senior civil servant has said.

The contract between the Land Department and BOV, which changed a 40-year lease into a temporary emphyteutical concession for 65 years, was based on an exception under the Disposal of Government Land Act.

This stipulates that a deal would not require a parliamentary resolution or the issue of a public tender “if it consists in land which is offered for an industrial project after applicant would have satisfied the government about the benefit which the project would render to the country’s economy and that it would create an adequate number of jobs”.

The contract lays down that the House of Four Winds in Valletta, which houses the bank chairman’s office, “shall be used for the carrying out of financial services”.

Read more in the Times of Malta.

 

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