Newsroom MaltaToday was informed by a ‘reliable’ source that both party TV stations, ONE TV and NET TV, owe millions in unpaid electricity bills to ARMS, the water and energy billing company. The newsroom revealed that One Productions, the Labour media house, owes ARMS up to €1.25 million in pending dues. Meanwhile, Media.Link, the PN’s media company, owes ARMS €3.5 million.
The newspapers was also informed that while a payment schedule is in place for ONE, little of the pending bill for Media.Link has been settled as of yet. Courts have been unsuccessfully petitioned to uphold a decision by the Information and Data Protection Appeals Tribunal. This had decided that ARMS should acquiesce to a freedom of information request by the newspaper to reveal the outstanding bills that both political parties had with ARMS.
The 2017 decision by the tribunal came four years after MaltaToday filed its request, with the newsroom reporting that the Nationalist and Labour parties had bills mounting to €2.5 million combined in 2014. The PN owed €1.9 million. MaltaToday insisted that unlike regular consumers, the parties contested democratic elections and selected who would be anointed Energy Affairs minister. This would allow them to negotiate better terms of repayment of their bills. ARMS and the IDPC were told by MaltaToday that consumers are at a disadvantage to political parties, which cannot be considered ‘normal clients’, as ARMS insists they are.
The winning parties whose candidates are elected winners then select the people to run ARMS and its two shareholders Enemalta and Water Services Corporation. ARMS had refused the newsroom’s request, with MaltaToday appealing the refusal. They stated that the IDPC, who, along with ARMS, applied an Article 5 exemption, had not carried out an appropriate public interest test on whether disclosing the information would be of more benefit to the public rather than being kept secret.
The Appeals Tribunal said that the FOI Act’s definition of public authority did not apply to corporations but to ministries, departments and agencies in which government had control. Lawyer Anna Mallia overturned the IDPC’s decision, ordering ARMS to furnish the newsroom with its requested documents. Her decision was later overturned by the Court of Appeal.
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