Commission rejects corruption claims

The Commission Against Corruption has found no evidence of corruption in four cases it was asked to investigate following allegations made in Parliament and in a newspaper.

Three of the cases were moved by former Competitiveness Minister Ċensu Galea following allegations in Parliament by Labour MPs Joe Mizzi and Jose Herrera.

Mr Mizzi had alleged that a restaurant close to the Yachting Centre at Ta' Xbiex was using Malta Maritime Authority (MMA) facilities.

The Commission concluded that there was no abuse since one of the conditions of rent was that the authority's toilets could be used by the clients of the restaurant.

Mr Mizzi had also claimed that the MMA had changed the way it registered vessels older than 25 years so as to benefit a particular shipping agent.

The Commission concluded that no practice had been changed because of someone's personal interest and 16 agents had benefited from this change.

It said that no application was accepted after it had been refused by others.

Dr Herrera had claimed that MMA chairman Marc Bonello had a direct interest in tenders being awarded and was being present for their adjudication.

The Commission concluded that Dr Bonello had no conflict of interest.

The other case was moved by Chief Justice Vincent de Gaetano following an article in Business Today written by George M. Mangion.

Mr Mangion had claimed that irrespective of a number of pleas from whistleblowers, the government refused to heed reports uncovering information on judges, magistrates, lawyers, notaries, businessmen and politicians who appeared to have been involved in anetwork of corruption and deceit.

The Commission concluded that Mr Mangion had no evidence of corruption by any members of the judiciary or others and as he himself said when giving evidence he had copied a paragraph from the Internet because he liked the diction. That paragraph was part of a report going back 20 years.