This summer, perhaps: Clint Camilleri sets sixth deadline for €18m pool

Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri has announced a new opening date for the long-overdue Gozo Aquatic Centre, with the latest pledge aiming for a summer launch.

Appearing before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), the Minister was unable to explain why a facility initially slated for completion in 2021 remains under construction.

Despite ongoing delays, he maintained that “the complex is almost ready” and would open to the public in the coming months.

His remarks prompted a sarcastic aside from Nationalist Party MP Claudette Buttigieg, who referenced a Maltese saying, “kinsa u tfarfira jonqos” (all that’s left is a quick sweep).

This is the sixth opening date announced since Camilleri took over the Gozo Ministry in 2020.

The most recent deadline — June 2024 — passed almost a year ago without fanfare. In March 2024, he told Parliament that the centre was complete and undergoing final testing. Today, the project remains unfinished.

Sources close to the site told The Shift that the facility is far from ready, citing persistent leaks and other unresolved technical faults. Moreover, no tender has yet been issued for the centre’s management — casting further doubt over the latest timeline.

When pressed on the project’s escalating costs — which have ballooned from €10 million, as announced by former Minister Justyne Caruana in 2019, to over €18 million to date — Camilleri deflected blame onto his predecessor.

Caruana, who resigned from Cabinet and now serves as a consultant to Health Minister Jo Etienne Abela (a political rival within the same district), oversaw the project’s early stages.

Camilleri denied the suggestion that the costs had doubled, claiming the increase stemmed from additional tenders and significant design changes made after the original contract was awarded. These, he argued, were necessary and not anticipated in the initial budget.

The Prime Minister, Robert Abela, laid the centre’s foundation stone over four years ago. The bulk of the tenders were awarded to prominent Gozitan developer Joseph Portelli.