AIMS extends premises direct order with PL insider

The government’s sports integrity regulator, AIMS, led by former Judge Antonio Mizzi, has already extended a questionable direct order twice for the lease of its current office premises in Gudja.

Research by The Shift shows that the primary beneficiary of this €6,000 monthly direct order is a close Labour Party insider, who owns half the shares of the company leasing the Gudja premises.

Investigations by The Shift, including through Freedom of Information (FOI) requests, show that in January 2024, without any tender, the then CEO of AIMS, former Labour MP Luciano Busuttil, signed a one-year contract so that the government regulator could start operating from the Central Business Centre, in Tarxien Road, Gudja.

The contract was supposed to be on a one-year temporary basis until AIMS could relocate to new and bigger premises.

However, almost a year later, AIMS is still operating from the same Gudja premises, with the government regulator extending the contract twice, at least until the end of this year.

The beneficiary of the €6,000 a month direct order is Tempodesk Ltd, a company registered in 2016, with its shareholders being lawyer Andre Borg, a Labour insider and son of former Labour MP and BOV Chairman Reno Borg and Mark Vella Bonanno, residing in Naxxar.

The young lawyer and owner of the premises has served in many lucrative posts since Labour was elected to govern in 2013 and acted for many years as the company secretary of the now beleaguered Air Malta. A few years ago, he was also appointed to serve as Malta’s non-resident Ambassador to Lebanon.

It is not known how AIMS selected the premises of Borg to serve as its HQ, although sources confirmed that the then CEO, Luciano Busuttil and Borg, both practising lawyers, are friends.

At the same time, a tender issued last year for AIMS to acquire new premises is still in progress.

The tender, which had raised eyebrows as it restricted offers only to the location of the Santa Venera area, possibly intended to achieve some pre-destined result, was awarded just a few months ago to Gerada Quality Construction Ltd, owned by Gordon Gerada from Sliema.

The tender was assigned to Gerada for €870,000, despite the lowest tender submitted being just €500,000.

Education Minister Clifton Grima, responsible for AIMS, never explained why the tender was given to the highest bidder.

The premises chosen are still many months away from being handed over to AIMS, as they need to be totally refurbished.

This will ‘force’ AIMS to continue to extend its current lease directly with Tempodesk Ltd.