One and Net owe €4,750,000 in water and electricity bills

MaltaToday has reported that Labour’s One Productions owes ARMS a total of €1.25 million in water and electricity bills, while the Nationalists’ Media.Link owes €3.5 million.

The newspaper said it is informed that a payment schedule is in place for One Productions, while Media.Link has been settling little of its pending bill.

MaltaToday unsuccessful in formally requesting information

Back in 2013, MaltaToday filed a freedom of information request which was refused by ARMS, citing an exemption that it was a government-owned commercial company.

Since the Information and Data Protection Commissioner agreed with ARMS, MaltaToday contested this decision at the Information and Data Protection Appeals Tribunal which decided in favour of the newspaper.

In 2017, the newspaper unsuccessfully petitioned the courts to uphold the tribunal’s decision that ARMS should comply with MaltaToday’s request.

‘Consumers at disadvantage to political parties’

MaltaToday argued that the two parties contested elections and ultimately selected the energy minister, and who runs ARMS, Enemalta and the Water Services Corporation.

This could allow them to negotiate better repayment terms, unlike normal customers who would receive judicial letters to settle their pending bills, or have their services disconnected.

The newspaper said that consumers are at a disadvantage to political parties, which cannot be considered “normal clients” as ARMS insists they are.