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Karl Schembri
Leading entrepreneur Albert Mizzi negotiated the purchase of the Brussels Lm9 million property on behalf of the Maltese government for free, according to the Department of Information.
Replying to questions sent by MaltaToday, a DOI officer said Mizzi led the negotiating team in the process involving the selection and acquisition of the property without receiving any remuneration.
“He was involved in the process because of his considerable experience in commercial negotiations involving real estate,” the spokesman said, adding that Mizzi had already carried out a similar role in London in 1991, when Malta House was being purchased. “Mr Mizzi was not paid any remuneration.”
Yesterday morning, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi thanked Mr Mizzi for helping with the Brussels purchase during his monthly press briefing. He added that four storeys of the 10-storey multi-million building will be “commercialised”, giving rise to speculation that Malta’s embassy could be partly turned into a shopping mall and confirming that such a huge building was totally unnecessary.
According to former Finance Minister John Dalli, the controversial Brussels embassy was the pet project of Permanent Representative Richard Cachia Caruana.
“It must be said that the Brussels property project was conceived, controlled and pushed by the Permanent Representative in Brussels,” Dalli wrote in a letter to The Malta Independent on Sunday last week. “The choice of the site, and its eventual change, were his responsibility, as were the specifications for refurbishment and the choice of experts and professionals who assisted in this exercise.”
According to DOI, Mr Mizzi headed a committee made up of MIMCOL employees Ivan Falzon, Mario Mizzi and Vincent Mifsud, together with architect Martin Xuereb and legal advisor Peter Caruana Galizia.
On the Belgian side, SSA/XX provided assistance in the physical evaluation of the buildings, which will need an extra Lm2.5 million for restoration and refurbishing, while Herwig van de Welde and Olivier Toussaint were legal advisors.
The government also took the recommendation of KPMG London, who were involved in the 1991 purchase of Malta House in London, to engage KMPG’s counterparts in Belgium as tax advisors. They were paid EUR7,255.24.
The DOI spokesman wrote: “KPMG Malta were not involved in the process in any way and there is no common financial interest between KPMG Malta and either KPMG London or KPMG Belgium.”
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