Labour allegations dismissed

The Permanent Commission Against Corruption has rejected allegations of corruption levelled at the Malta Maritime Authority and its chairman Mark Bonello by Labour MPs Joe Mizzi and José Herrera last year. In three separate reports, the commission, chaired by Judge Albert Manchè, said that following a thorough investigation into the allegations made in Parliament, it did not find any evidence of corruption.

In one of the cases, the commission wrote to Mr Mizzi asking him to provide more information about his claims but, the commission said, the letter remained unanswered.

The investigations were carried out following written requests by Competitiveness Minister Ċensu Galea, who is politically responsible for the MMA. In June last year, Dr Herrera and Mr Mizzi alleged that a ship, which was older than 25 years, was registered by the MMA through a particular agent against the MMA's own policy not to register such type of vessels. They claimed that the ship was not registered when represented by other agents. The commission had written to Mr Mizzi asking him to supply more information, including the name of the ship and the agent involved, but Mr Mizzi failed to provide the information.

The commission said that, following interviews under oath with Dr Bonello, Lino Vassallo, executive director of the Merchants Shipping Directorate, and Anthony Mangion, ship registrar, it concluded that the allegations were false.

According to the commission, the investigations, including the inspection of all the MMA's records, indicated that no ship older than 25 years was ever registered by the authority after being refused registration earlier.

The commission also investigated allegations made by Dr Herrera who said in Parliament that Dr Bonello had a conflict of interest in the adjudication of a contract related to consultancy services on the upgrading of the Deep Water Quay at Grand Harbour. Dr Herrera had claimed that Dr Bonello was involved in the process while having a commercial interest with one of the bidders.

The commission said it resulted that Dr Bonello had in fact informed in writing the adjudicating committee about such conflict of interest and excused himself from participating further in the process.

The tender was eventually given to a British company, Coode & Associates/Scott Wilson, who had architect Lawrence Mintoff as their representative.

Questioned on this tender, Mr Mintoff said he had no professional association with the Dr Bonello.

In a third case, probing an allegation by Mr Mizzi that a restaurant in the MMA's yacht marina in Ta' Xbiex was using some of the centre's facilities, including its toilets, at the authority's expense, the commission said this was not the case.

The restaurant's premises in Ta' Xbiex was owned by the MMA and was leased to third parties through a public contract signed in 1996. "The contract specifies that the restaurant and its clients had the right to use the sanitary facilities of the authority's yachting centre in Ta Xbiex," the commission concluded.