Matthew Vella A judicial protest has been filed by lawyer George Hyzler on behalf of a group of exhibitors who are members of the Trade Fair Exhibitors Association, against the six directors of the company TFEA Ltd, which is looking towards setting up its own trade fair on the Naxxar fair grounds.
The six directors – Anthony Galea, Paul Abela, John J. Camilleri, Darren De Domenico, George Demajo and Raphael E. Micallef – personally set up TFEA Ltd for the purpose of setting up the fair.
However, in the judicial protest, Hyzler claims they used the funds of the Trade Fair Exhibitors Association, which amount to €500,000.
These funds were made available to TFEA Ltd to rent the disused Naxxar trade fair grounds for the next five years.
The money was in the hands of the association from the sale of shares it held in the Malta Trade Fair Corporation – an entity that grouped business associations – in the Malta Fairs and Conventions Centre Ltd, the company that operates the Ta’ Qali exhibition tent.
TFEA Ltd bears the same acronym of the Trade Fairs Exhibitors Association, and its directors are the six entrepreneurs who also make up the committee of the exhibitors’ association.
The association was formerly a partner of the Malta Trade Fairs Corporation, which grouped the Chamber of SMEs (GRTU), the Chamber of Commerce and the Federation of Industry, the Malta Arts Society and government, for the organisation of the annual trade fair in Naxxar. The trade fair then moved to the Malta Fairs and Conventions Centre multipurpose tent in Ta’ Qali in 2007, when the Corporation partnered up with Sign It director Reuben Caruana, to form a new company to organise the new trade fair.
In May 2009 however, directors representing the Corporation resigned from the MFCC board.
Hyzler said that the exhibitors’ association claims that its funds should have never been used to support the TFEA Ltd’s private interests, and that the money has been put at risk since the trade fair grounds have no valid commercial permits or trade licences and the MEPA 2006 Local Plan has specifically excluded trade fairs from the area in question.
The verdict is still out on the interpretation of MEPA’s own Central Local Plan, which states that in the event that the trade fair ceases to operate in Naxxar, either through closure or relocation of this land use elsewhere, MEPA will not permit the continued use of the site for the trade fair.
The exhibitors claimed that the actions of the six officials constitute a breach of their fiduciary duties and called upon them to refund the funds to the TFEA and to abide by their statutory duties as officials of a voluntary organisation.
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