Finance Ministry makes new claim about ferry captain

The Finance Ministry yesterday turned the tables on the shipmaster who has been criticising the Gozo Channel company for a series of alleged safety breaches, saying that he had been sidelined for the position of CEO with the company.

However, yesterday evening Mario Grech denied the claim and said he would take legal action against the ministry over it.

In its statement, the ministry said it could not say that his failure to get the CEO position was the reason for Capt. Grech's persistent and "unfounded" allegations but it felt it had to point out this fact at this point.

However, Capt. Grech said: "I have never applied for the post of CEO and I am not interested in the post."

The exchange is the latest development in a case full of claims and counter-claims, which erupted in September after Capt. Grech filed a judicial protest against the ferry line claiming serious safety breaches and fraud in the promotion of a boatswain.

The latter claim was proven in court but a report by a board of inquiry that looked into these charges dismissed all other claims and made recommendations to address shortcomings which, however, were "not serious".

The report was published on Monday. The captain reacted on Thursday with a second judicial protest in which he claimed that some members on the board of inquiry had a conflict of interest. He said some, including the chairman, were employed with the ministry, while a fifth member, Ghassan Abdullah, had not been taken on as chief officer at Gozo Channel by a board chaired by Capt. Grech only a "few months" before.

However, Capt. Abdullah too contradicted Capt. Grech's claim yesterday, pointing out that the last time the two met was 15 years ago and not a few months ago.

He had applied for the job of chief officer, which he did not get. "But after the interview, which was with Capt. Grech only, he offered me immediate employment as captain. When I told him I had no experience working as a captain, he said that I could join a ship as a trainee captain for three to six months."

He said he never took up Capt. Grech's offer because he was immediately offered a job elsewhere. "It's not true I have a conflict of interest."

In its statement, the ministry said it felt it had to reply to Capt. Grech's allegations even though it had not yet been formally notified of the protest he filed on Thursday.

It pointed out that only one member of the board, Carmel Conti, was employed with the ministry, as Commissioner of Inland Revenue. The others were not: Cynthia Scerri Debono was a private lawyer, Paul Miruzzi was a retired director-general of the government property division, Colonel Emanuel Mallia was from the Armed Forces and Capt. Abdullah was a lecturer at the Maritime Institute.

All the board members had significant experience in their professional fields but two members in particular - Col Mallia and Capt. Abdullah - had very high qualifications in the maritime sector, the ministry said.

Col Mallia was responsible for the army's air and maritime operations with a post-graduate diploma in international maritime law while Capt. Abdullah was qualified to command vessels that leave national territory.