A gift from Sadeen to the Marsaskala local council

Marsaskala mayor Mario Calleja, one of the foremost supporters of the construction of the American University in Zonqor point, claims that he is getting something in return for the community by asking Sadeen to build the council’s new premises. He presents the offer to build the council’s new premises as some sort of planning gain.

In reality planning gains are decided upon by public authorities after and not before the approval of a project. They are not the subject of dealings between mayors and chief executives but mandatory conditions imposed in planning permits. Therefore a council which actively campaigned against a project, can still be eligible to benefit from a planning gain.

In this case not even a planning application has been submitted and the Marsaskala local council can still object to the take up of 18,000 square metres of ODZ land.

MEPA CEO Johann Buttigieg has already made it clear that other sites apart from Zonqor will still be considered. The council will therefore be expected to participate in the planning process and represent the interests of the community.

By accepting a gift from Sadeen without even seeking the approval of the other council members, the mayor has effectively neutered the council. He has put the council on the receiving end of Sadeen’s charity. 

This is not the first time that the process has been contaminated by Sadeen’s largesse. Even before the local council was consulted and the project announced to the public, a sports association had been promised new facilities paid for by Sadeen. Moreover Sadeen also offered to sponsor a “natural park” next to the university even if they were effectively taking a piece of land from a national park approved in 2006. 

In reality while Sadeen are busy dishing small gifts, they are eying the great prize. For what we are talking about is a project subsidized by cheap public land. What we are talking about is leasing public land in Zonqor and Dock Number 1 to a private company without issuing a tender or an expression of interest. What we are talking about is a company, which is using the concept of a “university” as a pretext to take over precious land in Malta.

Surely Labour is not re-inventing the wheel. For the same recipe was used to the developers’ advantage in most mega-developments including Portomaso, SmartCity and Tigné. But the emergence of Sadeen from obscurity does raise questions of its own. And these doubts continue to grow because the government refuses to publish the Heads of Agreement signed by the Prime Minister with Sadeen Group.

This is exactly the kind of project which merits a thorough grilling session in one of parliament’s standing committees. So far it was only MEPA CEO Johann Buttigieg who has taken the flak for a flawed site selection exercise, in the parliamentary committee chaired by Marlene Farrugia before last week’s resignation.

But questions with regards to this project go beyond the environmental aspect and the take up of ODZ land. The question remains: why is this particular construction company from Jordan with no experience in running universities, about to end up on the receiving end of one of the largest ever transactions involving public land in Maltese history?