I refer to Godwin Warr’s letter concerning the Naxxar Trade Fair (July 22). I would like to set the record straight.
TFEA Ltd has entered into a lease agreement with the owners of the Trade Fair Grounds, Scicluna Estates with the intention of holding the International Fair of Malta and other specialised fairs within its traditional setting. To this end, starting January, directors of TFEA Ltd have had various communications and meetings with the DG Commerce. The DG advised us the department would find no objection to issue licenses for individual fairs, thereby ensuring that the business of trade fairs could continue on the premises, if we could prove that the premises were already licensed as a place for the holding of trade fairs. We explained that the Naxxar Trade Fair Grounds are covered by licence 44/130, which licence was irregularly closed last year without the consent of the landlord as required by Legal Notice 2006/1 article 16. However, the DG advised us that in his opinion Permit 44/130 allowed the holder only to operate an office and does not cover the Trade Fair Grounds. Obviously this interpretation implies that in the opinion of DG all the fairs held in Naxxar (numbering in their hundreds from the 1950s to date) were not covered by a license. This was also brought to the attention of the DG during court proceedings. Importantly, several fair licences were issued in 2006 and 2007 when L/N 2006/1 article 34 (2) was already in force and specifying that to hold fairs the place had to be licensed as such.
Therefore, last March we requested the reactivation of permit no. 44/130 and subsequently applied for the holding of the Malta International Fair at Naxxar. In April, the DG of Commerce accepted that permit 44/130 had been closed irregularly and offered either to call an investigation or to re-activate the licence and this was accepted by TFEA Ltd on a without prejudice basis. Instead of re-activating this permit, however, the Trade Department issued a totally new licence with a new number and different wording.
We immediately pointed this out to the director general though we only received a reply in court when he took the witness stand (on June 15, 2010) confirming that he was aware of this mistake and that he had advised his department to correct it. Yet, to date, the situation remains uncorrected and the last excuse was due to computer problems at the Department of Trade. This notwithstanding, the Director General remained adamant even after the courts had ruled that “the Trade Fair Grounds Naxxar are licensed to hold fairs”, and stuck to his interpretation that permit 44/130 was only for keeping an office (for the managing of the Malta Trade Fair from 4/5 Alley 1, Gwejda Street, Naxxar). He did however say earlier and before the court judgment that if a court decided that the premises was licensed to hold fairs, then he would have no objection to issue the necessary licenses for the holding of specific fairs. This was also confirmed in court to the question asked by the judge.
Since no formal decision was forthcoming and because of the declarations made by the director general, following legal advice we sent a judicial official letter clarifying our position and requesting the issuance of the permit. On May 20, we filed a lawsuit against the director general requesting the court to declare that the premises were already licensed to hold fairs and therefore ordering the director general to process the application on this basis within a reasonable time. Incidentally, the reply to our official letter was received on the May 24, four days after we instituted the court case.
The lawsuit was heard on June 15 and June 16 and the decision confirmed that Permit 44/130 covers all the grounds of the Trade Fair Grounds, Naxxar as a place licensed for the holding of fairs. Though the case is still sub judice (because an appeal has been filed) our advocates Ian Refalo and John Refalo asked for the judgment to be rendered provisionally enforceable on the grounds that by delaying this we would suffer a greater prejudice than the Department of Trade. Our request to render the judgment provisionally enforceable was upheld on June 23 without prejudice to the appeal which by then had been filed by the Attorney General.
On June 25, we were notified that the Department of Trade had refused the application to hold the Naxxar Trade Fair giving as main reason that the Naxxar Grounds do not have a permit! This decision has been appealed from.
In the light of all this we ask whether it remains the function of the Department of Trade to facilitate trade. This is a legitimate question since the excessive recourse to legalisms in enforcing red tape is stultifying competition. We still cannot believe that the DG is refusing to recognise that the Naxxar Trade Fair Grounds were licensed to be used as Trade Fair Grounds, especially now that he has an initial court ruling (subject of course to appeal) to this effect. After all, what is wrong with holding a trade fair in a place with which it has always been associated and which is still equipped as such? Isn’t free competition one of the aims of a modern European society? Isn’t it an additional choice to the consumers and aim to which this government has always subscribed? Why therefore does the department close the doors to competition and choice?