Constantly updated - Former Enemalta CEO Carl Camilleri was grilled by the Public Accounts Committee today on password procedures for the consideration of bids by the Fuel Procurement Committee.
Replying to questions, he also admitted to having met Total/Totsa local representative George Farrugia after he left his post and had been seeking a new job.
He also said that he had taken his office laptop and copies of his correspondence with him home after he left office, but insisted confidentiality clauses were always respected.
The Public Accounts Committee resumed its hearings on the procedure followed by Enemalta and its Oil Procurement Committee regarding oil procurement in 2010.
The hearings follow the findings of the Auditor-General in a report tabled some weeks ago.
Mr Camilleri said he had attended all the meetings of the Fuel Procurement Committee while he was CEO, except once when he was abroad.
He explained that whenever fuel was needed, the Head of Fuel sent an email to the chairman copied to him, saying what kind of fuel was needed, for which period. A call for tender was issued and sent by email to companies and agents, by the petroleum manager or the commercial department of Enemalta.
He said that there was never any indication of anything irregular being done and therefore he had not gone into how the call for tender was issued.
Labour MP Justye Caruana noted that both former CEO David Spiteri Gingell and the chairmen who succeeded Alex Tranter had complained of shortcomings. The shortcoming in the procedures of the Fuel Procurement Committee at the time were well known.
Mr Camilleri said the procedures of the committee went through an evolution from 2009 to 2011 mostly on the basis of the focus on governance by chairman Gatt Baldacchino.
In 2009 he was told that the practice was that minutes were not taken. He could not recall who told him. He did not like that but at the time he was still gearing himself in the post.
A suggestion was later made to have a more clear adjudication sheet listing the bids and prices. This did not constitute minutes.
Replying to questions by Labour MP Owen Bonnici, Mr Camilleri said he had suggested publication of the outcome of the adjudication, but the proposal was turned down because of the sensitive information involved, an argument which did hold water to an extent. That would have given an information advantage, in particular, to Totsa, the most successful bidder, since it obviously knew the conditions under with its bids were accepted. Indeed, Enemalta still did not issue results to date.
Bids were received by email or fax. Eventually, from early 2011 under the chairmanship of William Spiteri Bailey, bids were sent by email with Mita holding the password. Mita then provided the password of the generic account and the procurement committee members used to study all the tender bids and rank them by price and other conditions.
They then discussed the strategy to be adopted in the talks with the top listed bidders. The chairman then negotiated with the bidders on speakerphone in everyone's presence.
PASSWORD PROCEDURE
Labour MP Luciano Busuttil noted that according to the audit report, the password was not always asked for.
Mr Camilleri said the password was always sought from Mita, although the agency may not have logged it.
An Audit Office official, when questioned by PAC chairman Jason Azzopardi, said there were instances when the phone call for the password was not logged. It may have been the case that a call was made but not logged by Mita, or the phone call was not made.
Mr Camilleri said bids could not be opened without the password. He recalled a case in July 5, 2011 when somebody in Enemalta admitted to forgetting to reset the password but that was different from opening the password.
Dr Justyne Caruana said there had been a problem even before that meeting, according to the audit report. So how was the password acquired on that meeting?
Mr Camilleri said that as far as he knew the chairman or the financial officer always sought the password at the start of the meeting.
Dr Caruana also noted how there had been a case where the procurement committee selected a bid and then held another urgent meeting the following day. The meeting was requested by the Chief Financial Officer, Antoine Galea. The CFO reported how Totsa/Total had complained in a phone call that no negotiations had been made on their bid.
It resulted that the bid was wrongly submitted - it was sent as 'personal' and therefore could not be seen by the committee.
It was later also established that the bid was non-compliant anyway.
Asked by Dr Caruana whether it was regular for a member of the procurement committee to have a discussion with a supplier who had lost a bid, Mr Camilleri said Mr Galea was the one who paid the suppliers after contracts were awarded.
Total/Totsa knew they had not won the tender because they were not informed they had won it. It was there initiative to phone Mr Galea because he was a person they knew on the basis of his work. This call was 'extraordinary' and he had expressed his disappointment with Mr Galea for having discussed the issue.
No other bidders had complained about their bid having been rejected.
MEETINGS WITH GEORGE FARRUGIA
Mr Camilleri said he had met George Farrugia - local representative of Totsa - as well as other representatives of suppliers when they paid courtesy visits to Enemalta. He remembered going to a maximum of two dinners at which Mr Farrugia was present. He remembered one venue but could not remember who the chairman was at the time.
As far as he knew he received a hamper at least once from George Farrugia/John's Garage. A list was held by Enemalta, he said. He did not remember receiving any at home.
He never met Mr Farrugia alone, except in 2012 after he had left his job, when he enquired about being given a job as a consultant.
He left the €82,000-a-year post of CEO because it was a 'burn-out position' he said. It was his decision to call it a day.
Asked about comments by his predecessor David Spiteri Gingell that he was unable to push through reform in Enemalta because the Finance Ministry would not issue the funds, Mr Camilleri said it had been a challenging process as spending was on a tight rein.
He agreed with Mr Spiteri Gingell's comments on how Enemalta had needed reform and said he had sought to instil flexibility. He had managed, slowly, to build a more robust finance department.
Asked about how close he was to ministry official Pierre Carabott, Mr Camilleri said they did not have a very close friendship. However they once went on holiday together. He did not remember receiving a complaint against Mr Carabott from an Enemalta chief officer.
He said he took his office laptop home with him when he left his post, having sought permission to do so. He also took his copies of correspondence, which he later returned at the chairman's request. Most people did so.
Dr Caruana said this was irregular as the laptop included confidential Enemalta information.
Dr Camilleri admitted that he should have cleared his laptop before taking it. However he always respected his confidentiality clause. He only took it to have records in case somebody asked him something.
Follow the hearing below.