Technical officer denies extortion allegations

The senior principal technical officer at the environment ministry's drainage sector yesterday categorically denied ever extorting money from a contractor.

Vincent Cilia took the witness stand and rebutted allegations made by contractor Carmel Bonnici who testified earlier in the court proceedings.

"I categorically deny ever taking Lm500 or any sum of money from (Carmel) Bonnici or from anybody else. If I really wanted to make money I could have but I did not," Cilia said.

Cilia, of Zebbug, who was testifying before Magistrate Abigail Lofaro, is pleading not guilty to extorting money from Bonnici and his son Marco (the Bonnici contractors) on and before July 14, 2001.

Cilia yesterday explained he had been working at the ministry for 35 years, 34 years of which he spent in the drainage sector. He had been responsible for the digging of thousands of kilometres of trenches around Malta.

He said he had contacts with most contractors. In fact, part of his job was to classify whether contractors were careless or diligent.

He explained how the Bonnici contractors had been awarded a contract on a Swatar housing estate but the project did not go through due to technical reasons.

He asked the Bonnici contractors if they were interested in transferring their contract onto a Zejtun project and they agreed.

Cilia referred to the part of Carmel Bonnici's testimony in which he said the accused kept changing the instructions as to how the digging operation should proceed.

He explained that once it was decided that the Bonnicis were going to work on the Zejtun project he issued instructions as to where to dig the trenches. However, architect Ian Zammit had approached Cilia to ask whether the trenches could be re-routed because a client of the architect had a field in the area.

After the matter was referred to the director, it was decided that the trenches would follow a different path and Cilia informed Carmel Bonnici accordingly.

The accused explained that the man mentioned by Carmel Bonnici in his testimony as the one that Cilia kept sending in order to distract him while working was Nazzareno Darmanin.

He said he had sent Darmanin to inspect the work being done by the Bonnicis because he had been informed that it was not up to standard. Cilia said he eventually reported the poor work to the architect in charge of the project.

Referring to Carmel Bonnici's claim that he had not been paid for the works he did, Cilia said that when he researched the matter he found that the contractor had been paid Lm8,117.72 on November 26, 1998.

Cilia said he also found out that between 1996 and 1998 the Bonnici contractors had been awarded Lm180,000 worth of contracts.

He said he did not understand how this could have happened since he did not classify Carmel Bonnici as a contractor with such potential, especially because he had few men working for him. He also said that the Bonnicis never honoured the orders to start a project.

Cilia explained how on one occasion Carmel Bonnici had gone to his office but when he got tired of waiting he kicked his office door open and started shouting threats at him.

Although Cilia was scared and informed the police the matter had been forgotten in order to keep the peace.

He explained that when there was a serious drainage leakage in St Paul's Bay last July, he first contacted contractor Jimmy Vella who was doing some work in the vicinities. But Vella could not do the job because he did not have the right equipment.

Engineer Mark Mangion insisted on calling the Bonnici contractors and they were informed about the job. Cilia recalled that his birthday fell on the following and thus he did not go to work.

When he went to the St Paul's Bay site the following morning, he saw that E & S Mifsud contractors were working there. Later that morning, Cilia continued, Carmel Bonnici and his son went on the site and Carmel Bonnici told him he would deal with him later. Cilia ignored the threat but that evening he was informed that Inspector David Saliba wanted to speak to him.

When he went to the police headquarters he was questioned by the inspector and he denied all the allegations made against him. He was then confronted with Carmel Bonnici but refused to answer any questions unless his lawyer was present.

Cilia said be was kept in custody for 17 hours. The next day he released a statement which, in his opinion, was corroborated by the prosecution's witnesses.

The case continues.

Police Inspector David Saliba is prosecuting.

Dr Jason Azzopardi and Dr Kris Busietta are appearing for Cilia and Dr Anglu Farrugia is appearing in parte civile.