Update 2 | Security officers engaged for Valletta NYE event are 'licenced' say organisers

Valletta Nationalist mayor Alexei Dingli was reportedly warned by his party to exert diligence in the awarding of a security contract to unlicensed personnel for a government-sponsored New Year's Eve event in the capital.

The warning was made in the wake of reports received by the PN, that the Valletta Local Council and event promoter G7 had selected unlicensed personnel to run security on the night in which hundreds of revellers were expected to flock to Valletta and Floriana who are co-hosting the New Year's Eve celebrations.

Contacted this morning, Valletta Mayor Alexei Dingli said that the security contract wasn't his to administer, but a responsibility which fell on event promoter company G7.

Owen Spiteri a director of G7 Events expressed surprise at the issue, and claimed that so far no security contract has been awarded for the event.

"G7 always complies with the law and doesn't engage with anybody who is not security cleared," Spiteri added.

A number of licensed security companies have reportedly complained to the authorities, including the police about allegations regarding the security contract for the Valletta event, which in fact turned out to be untrue.

Although sources named two persons, identified as Joe Attard and Paul Dimech, as not being in possession of a valid security officer's licence, who will be manning security on New Year's Eve, it transpires that both Attard and Dimech hold valid licenses issued by the Commissioner of the Police.

Initial allegations of unlicensed personnel were to man security at the event led to an uproar within the industry, and some even resorted to their lawyers and penned a judicial protest against the organisers, who again insisted that nothing irregular was being awarded.