A former Enemalta chief projects officer was yesterday charged with corruption in connection with the oil procurement scandal – the seventh to be arraigned in 10 days.
Standing quietly in the dock, Raymond Ferris, 51, of Sliema, pleaded not guilty to trading in influence, corruption and fraud in November 2008 and in the previous months.
Sources said it was believed that Mr Ferris had been approached by George Farrugia, the local agent of oil company Trafigura, when the accused was still working at Enemalta. Mr Farrugia was last month granted a presidential pardon in return for information on the oil scandal.
Mr Ferris’s arraignment comes less than 24 hours after those of former Enemalta financial controller Tarcisio Mifsud and a former member of the corpor-ation’s oil procurement committee, Alfred Mallia, who both pleaded not guilty to corruption.
The arraignments are the result of police investigations into recent allegations that illicit commissions were paid in 2004.
Defence lawyers Veronique Dalli and Kenneth Grima requested bail, noting that Mr Ferris had been made redundant after his position at Enemalta was abolished and was still unemployed. It was hard to find a job at his age and he was living on social benefits, they told Magistrate Antonio Micallef Trigona.
Prosecuting officer Angelo Gafà noted that Mr Ferris had received a lump sum of €64,000 when he stopped working at Enemalta.
Dr Grima however insisted that Mr Ferris and his family were living off their savings and that they also had to pay for his daughter’s studies abroad.
The defence team asked that the bail conditions reflected his “weak financial position”.
The court granted him bail against a deposit of €3,000 and a personal guarantee of €50,000.
Tancred Tabone, a former Enemalta chairman, and his one-time adviser, Frank Sammut, were accused of bribery, fraud and money laundering last week.
Both men, who have been described as the masterminds behind the scandal, pleaded they were not guilty.
Anthony Cassar, chairman of Cassar Ship Repair Limited, and Francis Portelli, of Virtù Ferries, have also been also charged with corruption and money laundering in connection with the case.
All have pleaded not guilty.
Investigators have so far followed two tracks: one looking into bribes allegedly taken by Mr Sammut from Dutch oil traders Trafigura on consignments destined for Enemalta and the other focusing on the corporation’s former oil bunkering subsidiary (MOBC) and a firm that later took a significant share of its business, Island Bunkering Oil Ltd.