Marine engineer speaks of 'offer' by Mimcol CEO during yachtyard privatisation

Paul Cardona, a marine engineer with international experience in the building of superyachts testified in court today that during the privatisation of the superyachts facility the then CEO of Mimcol, Mario Mizzi told him: 'if you look after me, I am ready to help you'.

Mr Cardona had a 5% share in one of the bidding consortia, SYC, which had been given 71 marks in the first round of the adjudication process.

Mr Cardona said that in March 2009 he had been contacted by Mr Mizzi and they spoke about the privatisation of the dockyard and the situation at Gozo Channel.

At one time during the discussion on Gozo Channel Mr Mizzi suddenly told him with reference to the yacht yard privatisation that 'if you look after me, I am ready to help you'.

He also told him he was fed up doing all the work while others earned the money.

Mr Cardona said he told his partners in the consortium, who insisted they did not get involved in this sort of thing.

The biggest shareholders in the consortium were the Hili Group, SND Yachts and Falzon Group. Beppe Hili showed his disappointment at what Mr Cardona had been told.

Mr Cardona said that in September 2009 he alerted Leonard Callus at the Office of the Prime Minister. He felt that he might have made a mistake in not going earlier, but his colleagues in the consortium feared that this could work against them.

In the second round, the consortium saw its marks reduced to 48.

Mr Cardona said he had been questioned at length by the police and also had a confrontation with Mr Mizzi, who called him a liar in the presence of the Police Commissioner.

However when pressured, Mr Mizzi admitted to saying something similar to that he had told the court, Mr Cardona said.

Mr Cardona insisted this was not a case of sour grapes for not winning the tender. Nor had he spoken about this case with any politician of either side.