Government utilities billing company ARMS spent more than €2 million on direct orders last year despite its limited functions in a water and electricity market monopoly.
An analysis of the list of direct orders (see full list) given out in 2022, tabled in parliament by Minister Miriam Dalli following questions from Opposition MP Mark Anthony Sammut, shows how the government continued to use the company to shore up a bankrupt Air Malta and to subsidise its operations indirectly.
Tens of thousands of euros were also spent on questionable advertising and legal services that were mainly awarded to well-known government cronies and friends of friends.
A massive €1.6 million direct order was given to customer services company Centrecom, whose holding company is half-owned by Air Malta.
ARMS has been using the Mosta-based company’s services to deal with clients’ complaints about utility bills for a number of years.
In this way, the government has been subsiding Air Malta through this company as well as other direct orders for customer care services for a number of other government departments.
In 2020, the Office of the Prime Minister issued a €35 million direct order for the company to handle all the customer care services related to the Servizzi.gov public service.
Air Malta is precluded from receiving state aid from the government under EU rules.
This has been going on for a number of years, and the European Commission is fully aware of the loophole.
Air Malta chairman David Curmi is even on the company’s board of directors.
ARMS’ list of direct orders also shows how it has been used to hand dubious retainers and sponsorships to party loyalists and friends.
For example, ARMS gave a €10,000 sponsorship to PBS’ Shark Tank game show, produced by former Nationalist Party functionaries Anton Attard and Mark Grech.
It gave another €10,000 to Labour’s ONE TV for advertising. ‘Indhouse’, another ONE programme produced by Pauline Agius, received a €5,000 sponsorship and €50,000 was given directly to PBS for unidentified advertising.
Several lawyers have also received direct orders.
ARMS Ltd paid €10,000 each to former Labour MP Luciano Busuttil, Minister Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi’s legal firm 360 Legal. Lawyers Joey Reno Vella, Kristina Camilleri Deguara, Dennis Zammit, Michele Cardinali and Stefano Filletti also received direct orders.
Street Media Ltd, a company co-owned by Fortina Group boss Edward Zammit Tabona and event organisers 356 Group – owned by Labour activist Kenneth Mizzi and former Labour deputy leader Louis Grech’s nephew Daniel Abela- were also among the beneficiaries of thousands of euros of ARMS advertising.
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U l Gahan ihallas il kont tad dawl li rabtuh bih bi prezz gholi mac Cinizi Azerbaijan u Electrogas u minn fuq Abela ibellaggha lil poplu li gvern hanin qed jissussidja l kontijiet mit taxex taghna biex ipaxxi deal korrott ta l Electrogas ma Yurgen u xi salt korrotti ohra.
Dejjem l-istess nies. Kollha jiffangaw. U int kul jekk ghandek!
They made a pact with each other, that they will ALL be made millionaires – a promise they well kept! – At this rate, Malta is heading towards a revolution……..! And the EU does nothing!
And just what would you have the EU do? They have no power to directly intervene in the domestic affairs of member states. The prevailing Maltese attitude also still appears to be ‘just give us your money and leave us alone’. So, implicating third parties in this homespun mess seems quite unfair and unproductive to me. It’s still up to the blind to regain their sight at the polls.
Post incomplete: A particular security company is missing.
The Maltese people are not doing anything not the EU. We the people must stand up to be counted once and for all, for our country. If the people don’t care about their own home, why does anyone expects that somebody else will?????
Just another day in Mafialand, no one gives a fuck, they don’t care anymore if they ever did! Political blindness is an epidemic in Malta more than half the population suffer from it. The effects are debilitating and cause you to ignore blatant daylight robbery, cringe at the unmasking of your favourite politician who’s just a liar and a thief on a grand scale who has just stolen the money required for your mother’s hip operation and the money for the pills she will require aftewards so he can hire his best mate into a cushy non job. So why oh why don’t they get off their arses and protest outside parliament and bring these crooks down, every one of them. So fucking sad.
Unfortunately , democracy in the hands of fools who elect crooks ends up in a dictatorship. Stalin , Hitler , Mussolini , Muscat , are examples.
Look at Muscat with his Mussolini Pose and Speech mimicking.
Then understand that the masses can be fooled until they become starved. Then the masses hang their leaders , Cheuchescu , Gaddafi . Mussolini ……
U lil Haddiem insalbuh , biex nidru li qed naghmlu xogholna sew , Sahra ristretta u xeba tqanzih. L-istess nies jiffangaw wara li jkunu kissru kollox , immorru x’mkien iehor !
Viva l Labour !!
Friends of friends helping each other, Corruption galore !! Who usually does the approval for this mess? Is the Ceo?
It’s all with the approval of the CEO !!
U x?se jigri issa, dawn il-flus, li hafna minnhom, jekk mhux kollha, imorru ghand hbieb tal-hbieb? Nahseb li kollox se jkompli bhallikieku ma gara xejn?