Transport Malta has paid about €122,000 to the General Workers’ Union for the lease of a building in Paola it is yet to move into, this newspaper has been told.
Transport Malta declared in November that “it will only start paying annual rent [to the GWU] once the authority starts operating from the building”.
However, the Times of Malta is informed that although embellishment works are still to be completed and none of the government agency’s officials are operating from the new premises yet, the transport watchdog has been making lease payments to the union since September.
Both Transport Malta and Transport Minister Joe Mizzi have been skirting questions on the matter since last December. However, when told that this newspaper had been informed that payments had already been made, a Transport Malta spokesman confirmed that was indeed the case.
The only payment made was in line with its contractual obligation
“Transport Malta is strictly adhering to the contract it has with Paola Estates (the GWU’s company) and the only payment made was in line with its contractual obligation,” the spokesman said.
This newspaper has asked for a copy of the contract, but the request has so far not been acceded to. A similar request was made in Parliament last year by Nationalst MP Toni Bezzina, again to no avail.
Transport Malta initially planned to move part of its operations to the GWU building in Paola in September 2014. The union acquired it in 2010 for €1.7 million, but it has remained unused since.
Following Labour’s return to power, Transport Malta issued a request for proposals (RFP) to rent office space for 10 years. Although the call specified that only buildings that were ready for use by September 2014 would be considered, the GWU’s bid was selected.
The union’s offer of €490,000 in annual rent was not the cheapest of the six submitted.
Questioned over the delays to move to the new building, Mr Mizzi told Parliament in 2014 that they were due to new requirements made by Transport Malta. He said the government agency was planning to make a definite move in the second part of 2015.
When the deadline was not met, a spokesman for Transport Malta blamed the contractor engaged by the GWU to finish the refurbishment works and said that further delays were caused by the theft of all the wiring in the building.
A GWU spokesman had said the building would be passed on to Transport Malta by the end of 2015 at the latest.However, the refurbishment works were ongoing yesterday.
Asked about claims that some of the internal works – which, according to the contract, had to be carried out by the GWU – were being done and paid for by Transport Malta, the government agency did not reply.