An inquiry into the change of registration of two vessels and the renaming of two others with the previous names of the former found that the Malta Maritime Authority had acted correctly, but that the initial registration procedure adopted by the Fisheries and Aquaculture Branch before registration by the Merchant Shipping Directorate was deficient and needed correction.
The report of the board of inquiry was laid on the table of the House of Representatives by Transport Minister Austin Gatt, who also sent a copy to the Attorney General for any further action he might deem necessary.
The inquiry found that according to records kept by the Port Directorate the blue-hulled fishing vessel Mannara 1, registered in Libya, first entered Malta on March 3, last year. She was recorded as entering and leaving Malta a number of times before July 12, 2007, following which she remained in Maltese waters. The vessel had her name changed to Abdi Baba on April 19, 2008.
The blue-hulled fishing vessel Mannara 2 also first entered Malta on March 3, last year. She re-entered Malta on July 9, 2007 and never left Maltese territorial waters. The vessel's name was changed to Cevahir on April 19, 2008.
It was only around May 4 or 5, 2008, that the Ports Directorate was informed that on April 19 there had been a change of names. This came about because pilot Anthony Chetcuti noticed two pairs of boats, one pair with blue hulls and one pair with red hulls, with identical names, Mannara 1 and Mannara 2. Mr Christopher Sant of AJD Tuna explained that when the red-hulled Cevahir and Abdi Baba, flying the Bolivian flag, made port on April 19 they changed their names and flag to Mannara 1 and Mannara 2, flying the Libyan flag, and the old blue-hulled Mannara 1 and Mannara 2 changed their names to Cevahir and Abdi Baba 1.
The actual names Mannara 1 and Mannara 2 did not appear to have been fixed on the vessels before they left on May 3.
The investigations on the two red-hulled vessels got underway on April 22. The vessels clearly looked like fishing vessels but did not have names, although the previous names of Cevahir and Abdi Baba 1 were clearly embossed on the hulls. Both vessels' documentation was submitted on request by Mr Sant of AJD Tuna.
He explained that the two vessels had been bought from Turkey and subsequently registered in Bolivia, and that both vessels were in Malta for repair work. They were also going to take the places of the blue-hulled Mannara 1 and Mannara 2, which were aging and needed to be replaced.
On April 27, 2008, one of the blue-hulled boats was at Marsaxlokk and the other was at Bridge Wharf. Neither of them had any names, and Mr Sant said they were going to be registered under the Maltese flag with the names of Gaja 1 and Sharone 1 as workboats.
On May 3, 2008, two vessels named Mannara 1 and Mannara 2 left Malta with Customs port clearance. It was only after the departure of the two vessels that it was clarified by the agent that the vessels were actually the red-hulled Cevahir and Abdi Baba 1 which had been renamed Mannara 1 and Mannara 2.
On May 9, 2008, two temporary registration certificates were issued by the Fisheries Protection Officer bearing registration numbers MFD 0031 and MFD 0032. Both temporary registrations were issued for workboats, as signified by the letter D, and both indicated that the licence of each fishing vessel would expire on December 31, this year and that the licence did not cover fishing gear. There was nothing in these documents that would indicate that the vessels were non-operational, or that the registrations were limited in this respect. Furthermore, the board of inquiry noted, the wording "licence of fishing vessel expiring on December 31" implied that the document was indeed a licence for the boat to operate.
The board found that a fishing vessel or workboat needed to have a dual registration: on the fishing register with an MF number and with the Malta Maritime Authority (MMA). It also observed that the initial registration procedure adopted by the Fisheries and Aquaculture branch before registration by the Merchant Shipping Directorate needed improvement for a number of reasons which it set out.
It was not correct, as had happened in this case, for the F&A branch not to ensure that all required documents were delivered by the applicants before the process was continued.
But the board found no irregularity or inconsistency in the manner in which the two provisional non-operational registration certificates for the Gaja 1 and Sharone 1 were issued.
An inspection of the Gaja 1 and Sharone 1 showed that the dimensions of the vessels as stated in the registration applications and the dimensions as declared in the two declarations of ownership were inconsistent with the real and actual dimensions of the Gaja 1 and Sharone 1.
From the board's interviews with representatives of Hannibal Fishing Ltd it appeared prima facie that the company had attempted to use the certification belonging to the red-hulled, newer Bolivian-registered Cevahir and Abdi Baba 1 as the certification of the older, blue-hulled Gaja 1 and Sharone 1. It had attempted to do this because the old blue-hulled Mannara 1 and Mannara 2 were no longer useful for their purposes and so the only way to do that was to resort to the switching of names on the same day as the red-hulled Cevahir and Abdi Baba 1 arrived in Malta.
The only reason why Hannibal Fishing Ltd would want to do this, said the board of inquiry, was probably because the old Mannara 1 and Mannara 2, registered in Libya, were in possession of some appropriate fishing permits in Libya. The company had therefore tendered false information to the Ministry for Rural Affairs and the Environment, which issued temporary registrations containing details which did not relate to the vessels being registered.
Following interviews with representatives of Hannibal Fishing, the board of inquiry said that Anthony and Charles Azzopardi were "economical with the truth". It was highly unlikely that Hannibal Fishing were unaware of the fact that they were purchasing the Mannara 1 and the Mannara 2, because they wanted to switch the old blue-hulled Mannara 1 and 2 for the newer red-hulled Cevahir and Abdi Baba. The board found it highly unlikely that an ordinary employee would be involved in all of this without the direct orders and instructions of his superiors.
The board commissioned a survey on May 27, 2008. On arrival the vessels' names were noted to be Cevahir and Abdi Baba. These were the names borne by the vessels when the board made a first site visit on May 22. But it was noted that when re-viewed on May 17 the vessels had borne the names of Gaja 1 and Sharone 1, showing that the same vessels must have had their names changed back to Cevahir and Abdi Baba between May 17 and 22. When asked about this, Mr Charles Azzopardi of Hannibal Fishing said they felt they had to do this because of the negative publicity in the media.
The board of inquiry found that the initial registration procedure adopted by the Fisheries and Aquaculture Branch before registration by the Merchant Shipping Directorate was deficient and needed correction. With regard to the provisional registration of the Gaja 1 and Sharone 1 with the MMA, all the procedures outlined in the applicable legislation were fully complied with by the officials of the Merchant Shipping Directorate.
The board concluded that given the possibility of conflicting interpretations the ministry should seek the assistance of the Attorney General.
In a separate development, Resources and Rural Affairs Minister George Pullicino wrote to Permanent Secretary Christopher Ciantar that he agreed with the inquiry's recommendations vis-a-vis the Fisheries Department's operations, and asked him to take immediate steps to change the procedure as suggested.