I am writing to correct some of the statements made in the report ‘Labour’s Australia Hall case is deferred again’ (November 21).
The report claimed as follows: “Sources close to the case said Labour wanted an out-of-court settlement so that it could renegotiate a higher value for the properties, reflecting current prices, instead of the figures agreed by then Labour general secretary Jimmy Magro in the original promises of sale.”
The figures were not agreed by “then Labour general secretary Jimmy Magro” but it was the party’s national executive that approved the figures for the sale of the Raffles and Australia Hall.
The Labour Party’s executive committee is composed of more than 55 persons and, hence, this was a collective decision and not a decision of one person.
Furthermore, the two promises of sale made had been concluded prior to 1995 so that the funds would be used for the construction of the new Labour Party headquarters rather than allow the two properties in question to be abandoned and vandalised.
It is also to be noted that the Nationalist Party instituted several legal proceedings for the government to take possession of the Pembroke properties and this as an act of vindictiveness towards the Labour Party. The PN in government also ordered Mepa to schedule the properties as Grade 1 in order to downgrade its commercial value and it was through my persistent submissions to Mepa that Labour managed to get a Grade 2 classification.
The party was not even informed when the grading was made since the architect responsible for the grading had claimed that he did not know who the owner was. To which I had requested the Mepa chairman to suspend the architect as even the souls knew who owned the three properties in Pembroke due to the visibility given in the local media.
The report also claimed as follows: “According to documents seen by Times of Malta, Tamarac Ltd has already paid Labour more than €200,000 in deposits for the properties. Fino also supplied €177,000 worth of office furniture for the Labour headquarters in Ħamrun, which the party has not yet paid for.”
It is not correct to state that Labour purchased €177,000 of office furniture from Fino. The only furniture that was purchased from Fino were for the leader’s office, the national executive table, a table for the audiovisual hall and a table for the media room. All other furniture was transferred from the Maċina. The amount referred to above included the cost of the façade and all apertures of the Labour Party headquarters that was awarded to Fino following a public tender and the evaluation of all tenders by an external evaluation committee.