Finance Minister Edward Scicluna yesterday insisted he was not aware of any deal to compensate the Malta Tourism Authority for offering free admission to last year’s Joseph Calleja concert.
Prof. Scicluna was asked to comment in the wake of a story published by this newspaper on the MTA’s audited accounts, which showed that the authority last year registered a loss of nearly €500,000 for costs which “had not been budgeted for”.
MTA chairman Gavin Gulia had told Times of Malta most of the losses were the result of commitments made by the authority as part of an agreement between the MTA, the concert organisers (NnG promotions) and the finance ministry.
Dr Gulia had complained that, unfortunately, the funds the ministry had pledged to compensate were not forthcoming and, subsequently, the authority ended the year with a higher deficit.