Mifsud Bonnici at arm’s length from fraud case

Local Councils Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici is keeping his distance from the fraud case involving several Local Council Association officials, insisting the organisation is “completely independent from the government”.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici, who took charge of the councils’ portfolio after the Cabinet reshuffle earlier this month, has described the fraud case as “a private matter” that had to be resolved by the association and its members.

Asked to clarify what he meant and whether he believed the officials should resign their post pending the outcome of the court cases, Dr Mifsud Bonnici kept at arm’s length from the issue.

“Although the Local Councils Association, as the national entity representing local councils in Malta, is recognised by the state, it remains an association with its own rules and statute which is completely independent of the government,” he said.

It was for this reason, he added, that the issue was “a private matter that had to be resolved by the association and its members”.

Earlier this month, a mayor, a former mayor, a deputy mayor and two local councillors were among a group of people charged with defrauding the European Commission in connection with the purchase of airline tickets.

The issue surfaced after an investigation by the European anti-fraud office, OLAF, found that the councillors and officials were requesting the maximum reimbursement for flight tickets despite buying them at a lower price. The sum reimbursed totalled about €96,000.

The councillors, who are all pleading not guilty to fraud and committing a crime they were in duty bound to prevent, are: Birkirkara deputy mayor Doris Borg, 76; former Mellieħa mayor Joseph Borg, 71; San Lawrenz mayor Noel Formosa, 39; the executive secretary of the Fgura local council and former LCA secretary Oreste Alessandro, 63; LCA president and head of the Maltese delegation to the Council of Europe’s Congress of Local and Regional Authorities Michael Cohen, 54; Qrendi local councillor and LCA member Claudette Abela Baldacchino, 38; and former LCA president and Ġzira local councillor Ian Micallef, 42.

The director of KD Travel Services Limited, Kenneth DeMartino, 51, and the company’s general manager, Paul Cortis, 56, are also pleading not guilty to fraud.

ksansone@timesofmalta.com