Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt yesterday said he had prepared a technical report to back his claim that at least one e-mail published recently had been manipulated to frame him in connection with the Enemalta oil procurement scandal.
He pointed the finger at three Labour candidates – lawyers Manuel Mallia and David Farrugia Sacco and MP Evarist Bartolo – who reacted immediately with a pledge to file a criminal case against him for slander.
The case involves George Farrugia, who was granted a presidential pardon last week in order to assist a criminal investigation into illicit payments allegedly accepted in return for oil procurement contracts involving the State energy company, Enemalta. Other individuals have been arrested after being implicated.
Dr Gatt’s also cast more doubts on one of the reproduced e-mails from 2004. He said it carried a date in Maltese which was not possible before 2006.
Dr Gatt first questioned the authenticity of the published e-mails connecting him to the oil scandal in a press conference on Wednesday where he made a series of points, which he said indicated that the messages could have been manipulated.
During the press conference, Dr Gatt said he would be filing his technical report to the police and insisted that the material in which his name is mentioned in relation to the oil scandal was coming from a Labour plan to frame him.
He also questioned the timing of the leak, pointing out that the e-mails appear to have come from an audit report carried out by the Farrugia Brothers, owners of John’s Group, in a civil case instituted against their brother George Farrugia – the businessman at the heart of the affair.
The IT audit was carried out in 2010, but both Dr Farrugia Sacco and Dr Mallia, who at some point represented the Farrugia Brothers in this case, rejected any connection with the leaks.
The timing of the revelations is salient, Dr Gatt argued, contrasting the issue with the way Nationalist MP David Agius acted on the recordings involving Labour deputy leader Toni Abela, pointing out that he had gone to the police straight away.
He also pointed out that the PL seemed to be doubting the process through which the rogue oil dealer George Farrugia was given a presidential pardon to tell all the truth on this case.
“Why does Labour seem to be afraid of what could emerge?” he asked.
On this point, Mr Bartolo said the party had no issue with the pardon. He also raised a number of questions, and asked whether anyone involved in the scandal had financed the Nationalist Party through commission received.
He also asked whether Dr Gonzi had been told before the 2008 election about the corruption that emerged now.
Last week, the Office of the Prime Minister rejected the notion that the Prime Minister had known before the story broke last month.
Mr Bartolo said he and his colleagues had stated in the most categorical manner that they had nothing to do with the e-mails.
“We have nothing to do with those e-mails. This is his baby. It is Austin Gatt who is in deep s***,” he said, arguing that the minister was politically responsible for Enemalta at the time of the procurement scandal.
Evarist Bartolo
Austin Gatt said the image which had been circulated on Facebook came from Mr Bartolo’s page.
The Times clarified that the image it had reproduced on Thursday came from the Facebook page belonging to Mr Bartolo. He was tagged into the image along with others by another Facebook page, which belongs to the Labour Party.
Mr Bartolo rejected that this in any way proved he was part of a frame-up.
“Dr Gatt is desperate and cornered and is deviating attention over what is happening to him.”
Manuel Mallia
A second candidate mentioned yesterday by Dr Gatt was Manuel Mallia, who, he said was part of the investigative team which uncovered the material from the work computers of George Farrugia and his wife.
He also said Dr Mallia had represented the Farrugia brothers at a meeting abroad.
The investigative audit of which The Sunday Times has a copy, reports on this meeting, which, Dr Mallia attended in Geneva with a delegation of Maltese businessmen from John’s Group. On the other side, were representatives from Total’s Geneva-based subsidiary Totsa. The nature of the meeting, according to the investigative audit, was to discuss the renewal of the contract between John’s Group and Totsa.
Dr Mallia rejected that he was involved in the drawing up of the report, pointing out this was a technical document entrusted to experts in IT and auditors.
“I never inspected or even saw George Farrugia’s computer be it a tower, laptop or iPad”.
He said the fact that he represented the Farrugia brothers proved nothing and like Dr Farrugia Sacco he was bound by professional secrecy.
He also argued that the nature of the meeting had nothing to do with the corruption case made in the newspapers and reiterated that he first learnt of the case from Malta Today.
David Farrugia Sacco
Dr Gatt questioned the role of Labour candidate David Farrugia Sacco, who had represented the Farrugia brothers, owners of John’s Group in a 2010 case against their brother George Farrugia (currently at the centre of the oil scandal). In this civil case, they accused him of siphoning off millions of euros from their oil trading business. Dr Farrugia Sacco categorically denied that he or any member of his legal office had circulated any of these e-mails. Despite being the lawyer of the Farrugia brothers in the civil case, Dr Farrugia Sacco said the e-mails he had come across in this role had nothing to do with corruption and that he had first seen the controversial e-mails that have been published in the past weeks in the media.
He also ruled out discussing the case with Labour leader Joseph Muscat, since he was bound by professional secrecy.