It was a sign of weakness that the government had still not managed to re-acquire a 12,640 square metre plot of land in Qawra which had been transferred to Go plc when the company was privatised, the Labour Party said.

When it came to safeguarding the country’s assets, the government was showing great “mediocrity and weakness”, the party said.

It recalled that when Go was sold, the government had talked of an agreement under which that piece of land would be transferred to it. Yet, four years on, Finance Minister Tonio Fenech had this week declared in Parliament the land was still on the company’s books but that negotiations for the transfer “were expected to end soon”.

Labour, which values the land at €25 million, said there had been no formal conclusion.

The party observed that, in May 2006, then Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt had said in Parliament an agreement for the land to revert to the government had been reached.