[WATCH] Fenech Adami insists on stench of corruption in Café Premier bailout

PN deputy leader lists 10 lies that Joseph Muscat said in defending €4.2 million Café Premier bailout

Beppe Fenech Adami (left) says Joseph Muscat lied ten times about Café Premier
Beppe Fenech Adami (left) says Joseph Muscat lied ten times about Café Premier
PN insists on stench of corruption in Café Premier bailout

The government’s direct intervention to bail out a private company and settle its private debts in a €4.2 million reacquisition of a government lease, left no doubt of a trail of corruption, Nationalist deputy leader Beppe Fenech Adami has insisted.

Fenech Adami listed "10 lies" from Prime Minister Joseph Muscat on the Café Premier saga, saying that it was now “obvious that the case stinks”.

The government is under pressure over its reacquisition of a 65-year government lease for the Café Premier, whose operators failed to pay their ground rent and were facing possible eviction in court.

“It doesn’t make sense that the government intervenes to save a company, paying its bills and settling its debts. What sense does it make for the government to make good for a company which is in debt with the government? It doesn’t add up. Trying to justify this doesn’t work. It doesn’t make sense,” Fenech Adami said.

The company, Cities Entertainment, was paid €4.2 million to pay back the State its arrears on tax, rent, and energy, as well as its own banking debts, totaling some €2.5 million.

No evidence of corruption has emerged so far, but one of CE’s shareholders, Mario Camilleri – who brokered the deal with the government – has had to deny that a €210,000 commission he claimed for himself from the deal was used to pay off other people.

Asked whether Labour had simply done a businessman a favour, Fenech Adami replied that there were only obvious conclusions to be reached.

“No serious government would have concluded such a deal. Which prime minister in the world would personally intervene in such negotiations?”

He also said that although Camilleri was a PN donor – he gave the party €2,000 in two individual donations – it was under the Nationalist administration that CE had been taken to court for defaulting on its rent. “We have a better track record than Labour. Donations do not buy us,” Fenech Adami said. He could not confirm whether Neville Curmi, the other CE shareholder, had donated cash to the party.

Asked whether the PN would publish its financial accounts, Fenech Adami said the PN was the only party that presented receipts upon donations received.

The story of the Café Premier bailout, broken by MaltaToday back in February 2014, was given new life in an investigation by the Auditor General which found that the government could have opted with court action to evict CE from the government property beneath the Biblioteca, in Valetta.

“Muscat lies when he claims that the café posed a danger to the National Library because the Auditor General clearly stated that there was no danger since the ovens were not gas-operated.”

Fenech Adami added that no plans have been yet drawn up for the use of the site, allegedly to provide vertical access to the National Library. He said this had only been a “feeble excuse”.

He claimed that Muscat lied about discussing the matter with the ministers – although a Cabinet note was presented – and claimed that his ministers “rubber-stamped” the deal without any knowledge of the meetings Muscat held with Camilleri.

He also took issue with the fact that while Muscat said he met Camilleri twice before the election, ostensibly to meet Maltco directors, Camilleri has recently added that he met Muscat at a wedding.

Fenech Adami said Muscat lied about saying that the Café Premier should not commercialized, when the memo presented to the Cabinet says taking back the cafeteria would allow it to be commercialized without it ever “posing a danger to the National Library”.

He also said it was only on the Opposition’s request for an NAO inquiry that the Prime Minister offered full disclosure. “Cafe Premier closed its doors on the day Joseph Muscat won the election. A few days later, Muscat and Camilleri met and a €4.2 million bailout was paid by the government.”

Fenech Adami added that Muscat was in no position to say that he did not interfere in the negotiations when Muscat himself “led the negotiations with Mario Camilleri”.