Former Enemalta chairman William Spiteri Bailey yesterday evening told Parliament that CEO Karl Camilleri did wrong when he did not remove company information from his laptop, which he was allowed to keep after he had decided to move on.
Mr Spiteri Bailey made this statement before the Public Accounts committee which is probing the Auditor General’s report highlighting several shortcomings in Enemalta’s fuel procurement between 2008 and 2011.
The former Enemalta official served as acting chairman following the departure of Alex Tranter from January to November 2011.
Replying to questions posed by Labour MP Owen Bonnici, Mr Spiteri Bailey said Mr Camilleri had asked to keep his laptop when he decided to leave the corporation in November 2011.
He added that neither he nor Tonio Fenech, who at the time was the minister responsible for Enemalta, had objected, since the understanding was that any company information on the laptop would be returned.
“Unfortunately this was not the case, but I only learnt about this from the Public Accounts Committee hearings” said Mr Spiteri Bailey, who admitted that he was very disappointed by Mr Camilleri’s behaviour.
The former chairman also corroborated the Auditor General’s statement that there was a policy vacuum on fuel procurement. He said this was one of his main priorities when he stepped in as acting chairman especially after the incident of January 19, 2011.
The understanding was that any company information on the laptop would be returned
Mr Spiteri Bailey recounted that on that day he was informed that a day earlier the fuel procurement committee had awarded a contract even though a bid from Totsa, sent via e-mail, had not reached the committee as it had been marked as private.
He said this was the reason why the policy implementation was accelerated and was in place by January 26.
Yesterday’s meeting opened with a letter from Mantoine D’Ambrogio, manager internal audit of Enemalta, which was accompanied by a thick dossier. The letter was sent in reply to a number of technical reports tabled by Labour MP Jusytne Caruana on October 14, which had shown that a particular consignment of fuel oil had excessive sulphur levels.
Mr D’Amborgio said that in December 2010, Mr Camilleri had accepted the consignment as stocks were running low.
However, supplier Trafigura was fined $250,000 for this shortcoming and severely warned.
He also admitted that Enemalta was forced to accept a number of out-of-spec deliveries in 2011 but pointed out that the annual average of sulphur content was below the 0.7 per cent threshold.
Dr Caruana requested that Mr D’Ambrogio be summoned in the future.
The sitting then continued with further questioning of Janice Mercieca, Enemalta financial risk manager. She said that since the publication of the report, she had not been approached by the police to provide information about out-of-spec consignments.
The committee adjourned to tomorrow at 6.30pm.