Shadow justice minister Jason Azzopardi yesterday accused the government of keeping hidden land transfers to Enemalta just before the Shanghai Electric deal was sealed last year.
However, the Energy Ministry insisted the contracts were lease agreements that one could view because they were public deeds.
One of the deeds consisted of a 99-year lease agreement for the Marsa power station site, which was transferred back to Enemalta from the financial vehicle it had been transferred to in 2012. The agreement was one of several signed on August 25 in a marathon session involving Enemalta and the Land Department that lasted until 4am the following day. The contracts were released by Dr Azzopardi yesterday.
He accused the government of keeping the agreements hidden, noting they also included the transfer of various lands used by the Petroleum Division.
“This raises question marks about the government’s commitment to transparency,” Dr Azzopardi said.
The Energy Ministry said Enemalta Corporation had a leasehold agreement with Vault Finance Ltd for the use of the Marsa power station. Vault Finance was the special purpose vehicle, a financial instrument, created in 2012 to generate finance for Enemalta.
Enemalta’s properties were given value and transferred to Vault Finance, against which the company took out bank loans used to refinance the corporation.
The government said the conditions and price for the transfer back of the leasehold to Enemalta from Vault with regard to the Marsa power station were pre-established in the agreement.
“In preparation for the creation of Enemalta plc in August 2014, the government... availed itself of the provisions of the 2012 agreement with Vault Finance to acquire the temporary emphytheusis for the Marsa power station site,” the ministry said.
The Marsa power plant concession was granted for a yearly ground rent of €65,000 and Enemalta also made a one-time payment of €2.6 million. The leasehold makes provisions for the ground rent to increase.
Asked whether this made sense given that the Marsa power station would be closed down, a ministry spokeswoman said the site was an asset that had been in use by Enemalta.
“Given that it will decommission the power station, Enemalta was also obliged to ensure the land was cleared of any waste and it only made sense to do so if the asset was in their possession,” she said.
Dr Azzopardi said the contracts were concluded just two days before the government published legal notices that removed the obligation on Enemalta to go to Parliament if it transferred land to third parties.
He asked whether Shanghai Electric Power, the Chinese company in talks with Enemalta at the time, was getting cold feet and the government used the land transfers to boost the energy company’s asset base.
“The investors had bought into a company that was much better off than originally claimed,” Dr Azzopardi insisted.
However, the ministry spokeswoman insisted the land transfers were lease agreements and would have still occurred even without the Chinese investment happening.
“The move was part of the process to create Enemalta plc. The assets transferred to it were sites that have been in use for years by Enemalta without having a proper title,” she said.
One of the contracts was a private agreement between the Land Department and Enemalta for the transfer of 310,000 square metres of public land for 25 years for the installation of PV panels.
Some of the sites include bus depots belonging to Transport Malta, where Enemalta was given the right to install PV panels five metres above ground level.
The government explained that the PV arrangement was a rental agreement and not leasehold.