Winning Romanian contract was no scandal, says former ambassador

Malta's former ambassador to Romania Alain Mangion insisted yesterday that his company had won a Romanian Transport Ministry contract fair and square after submitting a tender and that there was no scandal involved.

The contract is to advise the ministry's Highways Agency on a €1.2 billion project.

Mr Mangion is a director and shareholder at Credinvest International Corporate Finance Ltd which provides advisory services in emerging markets. Principally, its target market is government ministries and municipalities, advising them on project financing and structuring.

Mr Mangion resigned at the end of February after the Romanian newspaper Cotidianul reported that Credinvest was participating in a Ministry of Transport public auction in breach of the Vienna Convention.

The former ambassador, who presented his credentials to the Romanian President a year ago, insisted yesterday that he was appointed ambassador specifically because of his contacts in Romania, where Credinvest had been active since 2000.

The intention behind his appointment was that he would use his contacts to help other Maltese companies gain a foothold in this emerging market.

The Foreign Ministry recently confirmed that Mr Mangion resigned "in view of a conflict of interest which was developing relating to business activities" and said that it had immediately accepted Mr Mangion's resignation.

"My company was in Romania well before this happened. We were active, we had connections. Having connections means that you have a relationship, you have been of service to this client before and you have certain trust, they know that you provide a good service and as a result you are invited to submit a tender. However, you do not get business if you do not participate in a public tender with sealed envelopes and unless your offer is the most advantageous, which usually means the cheapest.

"The business we got, we got because we were there. We have an office there, in Bucharest with two staff, we have a local partner, we are active.

"The analogy I would draw is imagine the CEO of MiddleSea or BOV - which has a representative office in Libya - has connections because of his work in Libya and the government decides to appoint him the non-resident ambassador to use his contacts to help other Maltese companies get into this market. Is there a conflict of interest there?"

He said the contract won by his company was connected to what is estimated to be the largest project there is going to be in Romania for a number of years, so there were people who obviously weren't happy with Credinvest winning the contract and tried to dig out some information to throw mud.

Mr Mangion said that although it was true that the Vienna convention laid down that members of a mission were not meant to do anything for personal gain, it was the company of which he was director and shareholder that was making the gain and not him personally.

"We never did anything or used the ambassadorial position to try and make any personal gain because we didn't need to. I am a person of integrity and we wouldn't have even if we needed to," he said.

Mr Mangion said he unilaterally decided to resign because he did not want to put anyone in an uncomfortable position. It was also election time so it wasn't the best of times either, he added.

"I think it was much ado about nothing. It was not the case that there was some form of diplomatic scandal. There was no pressure from the Foreign Ministry for me to resign. It is aware that I'm a person of integrity and that I had no conflict of interest..."

He said that he recommended to the government that someone should be appointed to replace him as soon as possible because there were areas Maltese companies could infiltrate, including construction and civil engineering and financial services.

The Foreign Ministry said that procedures for the appointment of a new ambassador would be initiated at the opportune moment.