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James Debono
The company whose Lm109,965 rent bill was waived by the government because it lacked the assets from where to pay its dues, is now claiming Lm138,385 in rents, legal fees and interest from a third party who had signed a management agreement for the operation of a kebab house at the Jumbo Lido on the Tigné seafront in 1997.
Peter Fenech, who was appointed by the PN government as chairman of the Mediterranean Conference Centre, had his company’s outstanding rent bill owed to the Lands Department waived after VAB & Company Ltd was deemed to have no other assets from where the department could recoup the arrears.
But just weeks before receiving clemency for the unpaid rent, Fenech had sent two letters in September 2005 to Isabelle Maria Camilleri demanding she pay monies owed to him from a four-year management deal.
The Ministry of Home Affairs has not yet answered as to why the government did not wait for the outcome of the pending court cases before waiving the rent owed in November 2005.
The home affairs ministry had told MaltaToday in November the company’s dues were written off because it had no other assets from where to pay the arrears.
Peter Fenech a canvasser of Louis Galea was appointed MCC chairman by Galea himself back in 2003. His father Frank and him last paid VAB’s ground rents for the Jumbo Lido site in 1997.
They are still in court demanding substantial payments from Camilleri for rents and fees for the same years during which they had stopped paying government rent for the site.
Fenech is however in court demanding outstanding fees from a management contract which entitled Camilleri to pocket all earnings at the Jumbo Lido against a payment of an initial Lm40,000, and a further Lm20,000 every year payable in advance for a subsequent four years.
They pocketed Lm40,000 from the new manager at the Jumbo Lido just two days before depositing their last ever rent, an Lm18,000 instalment, on 26 May 1997. The money pocketed from the management deal is just Lm5,300 less than the total rent paid by Fenech’s company in the period between 1989 and 2005.
But financial difficulties and a devastating storm that rocked the Sliema seafront led to the closure of the Deniz Kebab House, after which the Fenechs took the case in court to recoup Lm80,000 in management fees owed to them between 1999 and 2003.
On 28 February 2000, Camilleri was ordered by a court to pay VAB Lm23,000 with interest, and again on 1 March 2002 to pay Lm20,000 with interest.
Both judgements are subject to an appeal, whilst other court cases on management fees owing for the years between 2001 and 2003 are still pending.
The Ministry for Home Affairs has not yet replied as to whether the Lands Department had approved the management agreement, which at Lm20,000 per annum was double Fenech’s annual Lm9,600 in ground rent for the Jumbo Lido site.
The government lease, signed in 1989, prohibited VAB from granting “on lease the emphyteutical site, without first obtaining the written consent to be granted or withheld at the discretion of the government.”
The same contract also states the company could not “impose any additional ground rent or yearly burden” if it was allowed to lease the Jumbo lido.
Attempts to contact Peter Fenech have proved futile. When contacted by phone, Fenech hang up after saying that he had no comments to make on this issue.
jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt |
