Water Services Corporation to start selling coffee in Mgarr, CEO silent

Karl Cilia, the new Water Services Corporation chief executive officer, is refusing to explain why the public entity responsible for the production and distribution of water across the country will be entering into a new business – the opening of a cafeteria.

According to plans already approved by the Planning Authority, an old pumping station in Mgarr, Gozo, will be restored by the WSC at taxpayers’ expense and transformed into a fully-fledged cafeteria.

The concept, completely incompatible with the corporation’s remit, was the brainchild of former CEO Ivan Falzon, himself a Gozitan. The project is taking place on a street at Mgarr Harbour that is already dominated by bars, cafés and restaurants.

Sources close to the WSC told The Shift that many inside the Corporation suspect the personal interests of some current or former official have been steering this project, which is located in an area renowned for commercial interests.

Falzon moved to Infrastructure Malta some months ago, but the project is still moving ahead with the Planning Authority giving plans for the new WSC cafeteria the green light.

Falzon’s successor as CEO, Karl Cilia, a former Enemalta official appointed to the post by Minister Miriam Dalli, who he assisted during the last general elections, refuses to give details about the project.

Asked by The Shift to explain why the WSC is entering the catering business when it is completely outside its scope of operations, Cilia did not reply.

He is also refusing to give details about who came up with the concept, who will be forking out the hundreds of thousands of euros required to turn an abandoned building into a modern cafeteria or who will be operating the new business.

Despite managing a major public entity and being paid over €110,000 in taxpayers’ funds to carry out his duties, Cilia has so far refused to furnish any details whatsoever.

Over the years, Mgarr’s Triq Martino Garces, where the WSC cafeteria will be located, has been transformed into one of the most commercial areas on the island, totally dominated by high-end restaurants on both sides of the street.

Business owners on the same street described the WSC’s new business venture as ‘odd, to say the least’.

“Apart from having a public agency competing with us in an area that has nothing to do with its remit, we suspect that this is some typical Gozitan plan destined for someone with good government ties,” one businessman said.

“If the WSC wanted to make use of a dilapidated property, it could have easily issued a tender and leased it out. But opening its own catering establishment smells fishy,” another said.

The project was never mentioned in the WSC’s latest annual report for 2021.