Malta witnessed the umpteenth instance of bad governance by the Joseph Muscat administration when Parliament was asked to approve the transfer of a huge chunk of prime shoreside real estate, of which quite a chunk is outside the development zone in Marsascala.

The beneficiary is the Sadeen Group, a Jordanian property developer whose operations in the Middle East might well be smaller than those of the most established Maltese counterparts.

Why was the government, which, just a short while before, passed into law its strategic plan for the environment and development willing to break its own so-called strategic plan in its first major test?

Well, Sadeen promised it would be able to set up a fully-fledged university with 4,000 students in a few years, something no other university offshoot in Malta enjoying far bigger reputations have managed. It turns out that Sadeen runs a couple of schools in the Middle East and is no doubt hoping to retain and expand on this market base beyond secondary level.

Muscat must have been truly impressed with this proposal; he compared it with having a strategic partnership with Microsoft and Smart City, both giants in their respective fields. In fact, so sure was he of his intuition that he agreed to it, in only a few minutes, without the need for any annoying due diligence processes. Such is the vision of our Prime Minister.

What is wrong with this proposal?Apart from the fact that it uses up priceless virgin land when other solutions were available, our country has given up this land for a mirage.

There is no American University of Malta (AUM). There is nothing American and the Maltese public is not aware of any strategic partnership between Sadeen and an American university to help it run the AUM up to acceptable standards. Is it, perhaps, hoping to win American accreditation by using the Muscat accreditation process?

It is not a university. We got to know in Parliament that, after months of discussions, AUM had finally accepted ‘advice’ to apply as a higher education institution. But, in May, Muscat had first paraded AUM as a university and the National Commission for Further and Higher Education confirmed it had received a university application.

Who was Education Minister Evarist Bartolo referring to when he said “we advised them to apply as a higher education institution”? If “we” referred to the Office of the Prime Minister together with the Ministry of Education, why did Muscat champion the AUM application in May?

Incompetence often leads to stinking deals

If “we” did not refer to Muscat, why did he countenance AUM applying in May in a way that was not according to the advice of the Education Ministry?

This can only mean that, in May, the AUM had tried to force through a university licence using the Office of the Prime Minister as a battering ram but failed.

They did not have the requirements for a successful university application, as the Opposition insisted from the outset. It seems that, for Sadeen, ‘setting up a university’ meant simply building the physical structure, hiring the lecturers and getting the students to pay fees.

And, what is much more worrying, it seems that Muscat was quite happy with this interpretation.

Never mind that the law gives a clear definition of what is an acceptable university in Malta, which has no resemblance to Sadeen’s mirage.

In the last few months, Bartolo has given increasingly strident assurances that no stone will be left unturned to ensure due process and the highest quality. But while Muscat intoned his full faith in the higher education commission in Parliament, he put it in the impossible situation of being seen as depriving Malta of foreign investment because of its ‘nit-picking’ over accreditation. Will the commission withstand the pressure?

After all, what’s in a name? Let them call themselves a university if they want but start off as a higher education institution. Let them advertise without a licence. Let them advertise themselves as a university abroad while hiding behind a higher education institution licence in Malta.

So what if the law expressly prohibits all this? So what if the definition of ‘university’ in the contract forced through Parliament by Muscat is against the law?

So what if it endangers the whole system of checks and balances on which rest Malta’s up-to-now enviable international reputation as a serious and recognised higher education provider?

So what, as long as the money comes rolling in? Let’s make hay while thesun shines.

Muscat’s government is either incredibly incompetent or this deal stinks. Although incompetence often leads to stinking deals.

Therese Comodini Cachia, an MEP, is shadow minister for education and labour.

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