Karmenu Vella forms a private business partnership with the General Workers Union
Just sign here and you can collect your colour TV from the kitchen at the Tunny Net
So now we know why Sam and Simon Mifsud – Sam used to be chairman of the Malta Tourism Authority – asked classy and brilliant Il-Guy to be chairman of their company Orange Travel Group, after they teamed up with Mondial, which is owned by former Far Right politician Martin de Giorgio.
And we also know why Karmenu Vella, Labour’s shadow finance minister, accepted the chairmanship of this privately-owned travel business.
There’s lots of money in it (obviously).
Karmenu Vella, like his fellow Gaddafi networker John Dalli, views politics as one giant personal business opportunity.
The Orange Travel Group describes its chairman shamelessly on its website as Malta’s shadow finance minister and consultant to the General Workers Union. God knows what he consults the GWU on, but he’s certainly used that contact to close a great big business deal for himself and Sam Mifsud and Martin de Giorgio.
You’d make Karmenu Vella chairman of your business too (if you were as shameless as Sam Mifsud) if he got you a deal like that.
I heard that the Orange Travel Group is buying out the General Workers Union’s travel business, Untours, so after trying to ring Il-Guy all evening and having him not pick up the phone, I rang Tony Zarb, who picked up immediately and was very civilised, all things considered.
Translated from Maltese:
Me: “I hear that you’re in negotiations to sell Untours.”
Tony: “No, no, that’s not true. Of course not. No.”
Me: “Are you sure? I have it on good authority.”
Tony: “No, no – definitely not.”
Me: “The buyer being mentioned is the Orange Travel Group.”
Tony: “Oh you mean Untours the travel business. I thought you meant Untours Insurance. Yes, we are in negotiations.”
Me: “How long have you been in negotiations?”
Tony: “For some weeks now.”
Me: “Are you negotiating with anybody else besides the Orange Travel Group?”
Tony: “No.”
Me: “Who is leading the negotiations? Is it (your consultant) Karmenu Vella, who is the buyer’s chairman?”
Tony: “Come on, I can’t tell you these things. They are of commercial interest.”
We ring off, civilly.
Five minutes later, Tony Zarb rings back.
Tony: “I just want to make it clear that the Orange Travel Group is not buying Untours. There is no question of anybody or anything buying even a bit of Untours. We are entering into a strategic partnership with the Orange Travel Group.”
Me: “What sort of strategic partnership? Will you be setting up a company together, the way that SMS did with Mondial to form the Orange Travel Group?”
Tony: “I have no idea what SMS did with Mondial.”
Me: “I find that strange, given that you are in negotiations with them.”
Tony: “I want to make it clear that it’s a strategic partnership.”
Me: “So you’re not actually in negotiations any more. You are already in a partnership. Have you given the Orange Travel Group shares in Untours?”
Tony: “I can’t give those details. That’s commercially confidential information.”
We ring off again, also civilly.
Actually, it isn’t confidential information. There is obligatory disclosure with a limited liability company and the Registrar of Companies has to be informed. That information is then made public on the MFSA website.
That’s how I found out that Karmenu Vella is the registered chairman of the Orange Travel Group, who the shareholders are, and that the company called Orange Cruises doesn’t actually exist, and is using the company registration number for the Orange Travel Group, even on the companies registry itself (registrar, please note).
Imagine the business opportunities that will become available to Karmenu Vella when he is one of Joseph’s cabinet ministers, the red carpets that will be rolled out for him by the unprincipled and shady, like Sam Mifsud and a whole queue of others.
Truly, nothing changes from the days of cargo-loads of contraband unloaded from the Lady Jo onto the deck at the Tunny Net.
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in the stars but in ourselves, that we are underlings.
Well, what can I say? This is one story that Il-Guy’s daughter-in-law Miriam Dalli will not be discussing on TX or investigating for Super One.
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Their campaign manager has opened a restaurant with the GWU.
[Daphne – Whose campaign manager? Which restaurant?]
This is just the overture.
The shape of things to come.
Partnership – l-Ahjar Ghazla.
The plot sickens.
A seventh Pulitzer for Daphne.
Mini Berlusconis on both sides of the divide. No doubt driven by the genetic need of power.
I think kokka is referring to Keith Schembri of Kasco. He’s not Labour’s campaign manager but he is Muscat’s adviser and friend, who describes himself as the ‘RCC of lLabour’.
This week I heard the Labour media criticise HSBC’s decision to close down six branches in Malta. They took the opportunity to raise the issue of the sale of Md Med Bank.
The difference is that this time they carefully avoided mentioning their usual target, John Dalli, who they used tio implicate in this ‘scandal’.
I wonder why.
John Dalli is now Labour’s ally.
All one has to do with this Labour, is to verify one’s suspicions and sure enough, they never dissapoint.
We have for the past three years, been waiting for a transformation which never came and policies which absence have reduced political dialogue to plain speculation and the remit of public opinion to a handful of bloggers.
If the press wishes to ignore this growing collusion, the responsibility for this camorra style power mongering on a micro level will fall squarely on its shoulders. If anyone wants to delve in what all this could lead to, Saviano’s Gomorra is a must read, available in over 40 languages.
Labour’s cultivation of domestic business interests can only lead to a de facto opposition to the state itself. These people aren’t working towards the common good, they’re building the worst form of political model possible, the anti-state, riddling us with conflicts of interests and lobbies tacitly intersecting the fabric of their political party.
This can only result in one inevitable evolution, the subsequent legislation of laws which will perpetuate feudal notions of favours and politicians’ grasp on citizens reduced to serfs. Should they be elected.
If anyone wishes to pursue Labour’s perverse adage, that what it is doing now is not a repeat of the past, they are simply complicit in this gradual erosion of civil rights, rule of law and liberal politics.
Labour at this stage needs to be saved from itself. We owe it to ourselves, since they are, currently, incapable of discerning it.
Shame.
Daphne, what exactly is the connection with Mondial Travel and MLP? Is Mondial a money generating business for MLP?
[Daphne – Mondial Travel is a private company owned by Martin De Giorgio, who used to lead the Far Right political party ANR. Mondial recently entered into partnership with SMS Travel, another private company owned by Sam and Simon Mifsud, to form another company called the Orange Travel Group. This company is chaired by Karmenu Vella. It is still a privately owned business. The Orange Travel Group Ltd has now entered into a strategic partnership with Untours, a limited liability company owned by the General Workers Union, which operates in the travel sector.]
I am under the impression that Untours is losing money. Hence, I just wonder what kind of strategic benefit would Orange Travel gain?
[Daphne – The market, obviously. The GWU has an enormous membership, and it comes attached to the Labour Party, which is even bigger.]
The choice of a tour / cruise is based on peer advice / shared experience.
The Labour voters already travel en masse with Hamilton Tours, and these decisions are usually taken by women who influence each other.
One can observe and listen to this advice in various villages’ bars and grocery shops.
Karmenu Vella and Untours are going straight for Norman Hamilton’s market.
Within the C2DE classes, the husband might have a say in the choice of country, but not the travel agent and all the other petty decisions.
Thanks. No more travels with Mondial for me.
Nor Orange, for that matter. Or SMS.