Enemalta’s fuel purchasing was “totally the domain of the chairman”, former members of the Fuel Procurement Committee said yesterday following last week’s damning report by the Auditor General.

“It was no secret at Enemalta that the fuel procurement process was the chairman’s domain,” one former committee member told Times of Malta on condition of anonymity.

“It is true that the bids received used to be decided by us (the committee) but it was a chairman-driven initiative. It was the chairman who used to receive the bids on his own e-mail address and it was his office that used to call the shots, even about when the committee would meet to make decisions.”

He used to receive the bids on his own e-mail address and his office used to call the shots

In its report last week, the National Audit Office slammed Enemalta’s fuel procurement practices between 2008 and 2010, when Alex Tranter was chairman of the corporation.

The report raised serious questions about lack of policy, inexplicable decisions and lack of proper records showing who took decisions. The police have launched an investigation following a Government request.

Speaking to this newspaper anonymously yesterday, former members of the committee confirmed that, until Tonio Fenech became politically responsible for Enemalta in 2010, there was no policy on the way fuel procurement was managed and how the committee worked.

“The chairman used to present the bids to the committee and we used to negotiate the best bids. That was how the system worked and it was always like this,” one former member said.

Another said: “The chairman was the main figure in the committee and the procurement process revolved around him.

“I was a very important figure in the corporation at the time and still didn’t have access to certain documents as these were deemed to be the chairman’s territory.

“I used to complain about the system but things only started to change in the latter part of 2010.”

Notes of committee meetings used to be scribbled on A4 paper by committee observers, who came from the top ranks of Enemalta’s management.

After meetings all these notes were sealed in an envelope and sent to the chairman’s office, the ex-members said.

Mr Tranter yesterday again refused to answer questions on how he managed the committee, saying he had sent a statement “on certain salient points published in the recent NAO report” to the Auditor General, which he had given authority to publish.

He did not reply when asked whether he had been interviewed by the Auditor General and for his view on the serious accusation that meeting minutes lacked “the most rudimentary level of detail”.

However, he underlined that “the committee decisions on fuel procurement during my term as non-executive chairman of Enemalta were all unanimous and all committee members present signed all the committee documents endorsing decisions taken”.

The former committee members said the way fuel procurement was carried out under Mr Tranter’s chairmanship was the same as under his predecessor, Tancred Tabone, when it was also considered to be “chairman’s office territory”.

They said things only started to change following the departure of Mr Tranter, with subsequent chairmen introducing proper procedures on the way procurement was carried out and how the committee was managed.

The Auditor recognised these changes, mentioning marked im­provement even in the committee’s record-keeping from 2011 onwards.

In February 2010, political responsibility for Enemalta changed hands from Austin Gatt to Tonio Fenech.

This was followed by changes at the helm of Enemalta, with Edmond Gatt Baldacchino taking the position of acting chairman after Mr Tranter resigned in March 2010.

Dr Gatt has so far declined to comment on the NAO report, insisting he has retired from politics.