Top comment: “All the indications are that Joseph Muscat committed himself with Mario Camilleri before the general election”

T. Borg sent in this comment beneath my post reproducing the prime minister’s “ok mario – ara mall finanzi” email.

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I have reviewed the National Audit Office report.

I am struck by how the decision to buy back the lease was taken very early on.

The report suggests that the main reason for the decision was the protection of the National Library from the risk of fire.

The NAO report also notes that there is no record of the consideration of other possibilities that could have achieved the same goal (Section 3.4.26).

Mario Camilleri met the prime minister and his consultant on 17 April 2013.

John Sciberras was involved in the negotiations a few weeks later in May. Sciberras was very clear with the NAO: he had not been asked to consider other options. His role was limited to assisting in the negotiations (Section 3.4.27).

That means that in May when Sciberras was involved, just two months after Muscat had become PM, the decision to buy back the lease of Café Premier had been taken.

That decision was taken by Joseph Muscat alone as the email published here shows. No one else within the government was involved in discussions on the decision or for considering alternatives.

Senior civil servants were not involved in the negotiations, either. The chances are they were not even informed.

Only political appointees (the PPS and OPM’s head of secretariat) were involved in the negotiations with Mario and Mark Camilleri.

When the assistance of a government architect was sought, he was instructed not to inform his superior (GPD Director General).

Joseph Muscat did not wish to have his decision questioned or delayed by discussions on options. He made it a point to keep civil servants out of it.

A third point of interest is that Joseph Muscat knew that Cities Entertainment Ltd. had received offers from another private operator. Had Cities Entertainment reached agreement with the third party, no public funds would have been spent.

Yet Muscat decided to proceed with the negotiations and eventually endorsed the payment of 4.2 million euros to the company.

The protection of the National Library is not a sufficiently strong justification for this sort public expenditure, unless it is directly on the library itself, because, as the NAO report rightly points out (Section 3.4.26), there were other options which could have been considered to enhance the security of the National Library against fire, without having to buy back the lease.

All the indications are that Joseph Muscat had committed himself with Mario Camilleri before the general election: that as soon as he became prime minister, his government would buy back the Café Premier lease.

There is no other way that the decision could have been taken in such a short time, less than two months after he became prime minister.