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Karl Schembri
The drab nine-storey building at the heart of Brussels meant to house Malta’s Permanent Representation to the EU still lies dilapidated more than eight months since it was bought.
Reconstruction works on building nr 25 in Rue Archimede opposite the European Commission are still at design stage, MaltaToday has learnt, and permit applications with the Belgian authorities are yet to be submitted.
Confirming information that had reached MaltaToday, a government spokesman said “interior design details are being finalised” for Dar Malta and that “a permit change request will be made” with the Belgian authorities.
MaltaToday got an unusually fast reply from the Department of Information to its questions last week, but the information was also passed on to The Times journalist Ivan Camilleri yesterday.
In July last year, a month after MaltaToday broke the story about the Brussels property purchase, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi approved in Parliament an additional Lm9 million to last year’s budget solely for the building – almost half of the Lm18.6 million overall additional public expenditure approved for 2004.
Amid public outrage, Gonzi explained that he needed Lm2.5 million to renovate the Lm6.5 million property bought from Belgian real estate agents Cofinimmo and rid it of cancer-inducing asbestos.
With the designs not yet submitted for the Belgian authorities’ approval, the government has already postponed the target opening by months.
Last year government was saying it should open by January of next year. Last week the Department of Information told MaltaToday: “Our indication is that the major works for the refurbishment of Dar Malta will be completed late in 2006. This means that works will then continue for the commercial outlets. A lot however depends on the time for the necessary permits to be given by the Belgian authorities.”
Permits are expected to be issued within three to six months upon submission of applications, the spokesman said.
“The indications are that the project will be complete within 18 months of permit receipt,” the spokesman said. “Again, permit receipt could be within three to six months of us putting in the application for the alterations required.”
The rundown building was meant to be “totally redeveloped” by its former Belgian owners. In its 2003 annual report, Cofinimmo states that the building it had just acquired concerns “an office building that has to be entirely redeveloped” and that renovation works were foreseen to be concluded in the second quarter of 2005.
Most of the asbestos has been removed from the building, the spokesman said. There is still some left in areas on the ground floor.
“Some asbestos is left in areas affecting the third party outlets on the ground floor which are not owned by the Government of Malta,” the spokesman said. “The removal of asbestos is part and parcel of the contracted works for the finishing of Dar Malta and is included in the purchase and refurbishment contracts.”
The government has banked on leasing some of the future embassy’s floor for commercial interests although it is still unclear whether tax would have to be paid for those floors.
Asked when the commercial floors are expected to be leased, the spokesman said: “Obviously, one can only rent out the floors once the major refurbishment is ready. Government is currently investigating a number of options and timings for lease so as to maximise the potential revenues from such leases. Following this a marketing exercise will be done to attract potential clients.”
Euro-follies
Malta’s Permanent Representative to the EU and the only unelected Cabinet member, Richard Cachia Caruana, originally planned to build a penthouse residence on top of the property but plans were scrapped after it was found to be unfeasible.
Last October, Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee confirmed in its hearings that architect Martin Xuereb and legal advisor Peter Caruana Galizia were commissioned to work on the property purchase on a direct order by MIMCOL. Leading entrepreneur Albert Mizzi was appointed as head of the negotiating team and had declared that it was a “great deal”. He had also told the Nationalist Party newspaper il-mument that he generously worked for free. “All I asked for was a plane ticket to Brussels,” he said.
Cachia Caruana had insisted that he only gave his approval to Xuereb’s appointment after he was selected by MIMCOL, and that he had declared that the architect had carried out private work for him on his Mdina residence.
Caruana Galizia had testified that Cachia Caruana “had a say in the choice of site”, actually that he “was definitely involved” in the choice of nr 25, Rue Archimede.
According to an investigation by The Times, the choice was “by far the most expensive among the purchases made by the 10 new member states”, with Malta’s property costing almost three times as much as Poland’s – the largest of the accession states.
MaltaToday had also revealed that the recurrent expenditure for the permanent representation costs around Lm3,000 daily.
karl@newsworksltd.com
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