A man who sat on the Enemalta fuel procurement committee said today that he had never met or seen rogue oil trader George Farrugia and had seen him for the first time at the police headquarters when he was being being questioned by police.

Tarcisio Mifsud, the State energy company's former financial controller, denied ever receiving Mr Farrugia in his office as Mr Farrugia was claiming.

Mr Mifsud was testifying in the compilation of evidence against Alfred Mallia, who also sat on the corporation's oil procurement committee. Mr Mallia is pleading not guilty to corruption and trading in influence.

Mr Farrugia said in a previous court sitting that Mr Mallia, the former head of Enemalta’s petroleum division had demanded kickbacks which were then channelled to Mr Mifsud when Mr Mallia had an accident and got confined to a bed.

Mr Mifsud's lawyer, Edward Gatt, asked the witness to react to Mr Farrugia's plan that he had gone to his office to pay him. To this he replied: "It is absolutely not true. He was never in my office. When the time is right, I will tell him who took money and who didn't. He never gave me any gifts. I wasn't even on his so-called wine list."

Mr Mifsud opted to testify even though Magistrate Anthony Vella warned him that he could choose not to testify since he had a pending criminal case and that if he testified, anything he said could be used against him in a court of law.

He testified that he joined Enemalta in 1974 and was the board of the fuel procurement committee between when it was set up in 1987 and December 2003 and Mr Mallia also sat on the committee.

He explained how there had been an agreement with Libya, calling it a "preferential agreement" whereby Enemalta would purchase its oil and fuel from Libya. The corporation stopped purchasing diesel from Libya when the committee received an order that diesel had to meet higher technical requirements.
The case continues in December.

Lawyer Kris Balzan appeared for Mr Mallia.