Former Mosta mayor Paul Chetcuti Caruana had filed a police report claiming that one of his councillors was corrupt on the basis of uncorroborated information, a court heard yesterday.

The mayor said he did not make a distinction between ‘corruption’ and ‘perseverance’

When asked why he claimed councillor Paul Agius was corrupt, the Labour mayor had replied that he did not make a distinction between “corruption” and “perseverance”, Police Inspector Angelo Gafà testified.

Dr Chetcuti Caruana had said that Mr Agius was very perseverant and insisted that a cleaning tender be awarded to a particular bidder.

Mr Gafà was testifying in the case against Dr Chetcuti Caruana who is pleading not guilty to defaming of Mr Agius around January last year.

The council was in the spotlight before the March local elections over allegations that work on residential roads was ordered without the council’s approval. An inquiry has since been launched.

Magistrate Audrey Demicoli heard Mr Gafà say that, in January last year, Dr Chetcuti Caruana had asked the police to investigate Mr Agius for corruption in connection with a tender for the collection of household waste.

The mayor claimed that, for two years, Mr Agius had threatened to resign as a Labour candidate if tenders were not awarded to his liking.

Towards the end of 2010, the adjudication board had to decide on the household waste collection tender, for which there were three bidders. The board had picked Winston Borg.

Northern Cleaners Limited ranked second with a difference of 0.16 points.

When the council came to decide on the matter, Mr Agius – who was the councillor responsible for road cleaning – believed that the tender should go to Northern Cleaners, which had carried out the job before and could be trusted, the witness said Dr Chetcuti Caruana had reported.

The majority of councillors voted in favour of allocating the tender to Mr Borg. Soon after, Mr Agius resigned as a Labour councillor and stayed on as an independent member.

The mayor then filed a police report accusing Mr Agius of being corrupt and of receiving a salary from Northern Cleaners.

Mr Agius denied the allegations and insisted that he wanted to award the contract to Northern Cleaners for the benefit of the locality.

Police investigations concluded that there was no case against Mr Agius. However, some time later, Mr Agius filed a formal request asking the police to investigate Dr Chetcuti Caruana for defaming him, Mr Gafà said.

He said that, when questioned by the police, Dr Chetcuti Caruana had said he did not see a distinction between corruption and perseverance. He said he did not trust anyone.

Dr Chetcuti Caruana also said he had been told by a third person that Mr Agius was on the payroll of Northern Cleaners but did not have evidence in hand.

Justice Minister Chris Said, who was then the parliamentary secretary responsible for local councils, testified that, at the time, the Mosta local council had ground to a halt because the adjudication board had not been set up and tenders were not being awarded.

The local council had presented a motion suggesting that the adjudication board be made up of two Labour councillors, two Nationalists and an independent member. However, the mayor objected because Mr Agius was the only independent councillor.

Dr Said testified that he was not aware that Mr Agius ever threatened to resign if tenders were not allocated as he pleased.

Lawyer Anġlu Farrugia represented Dr Chetcuti Caruana.

Lawyer Arthur Azzopardi represented Mr Agius.