Economy Minister Chris Cardona admitted he had stopped the new casino licence process but denied he had intervened.
The chairman of the Privatisation Unit, Emanuel Camilleri, said in court on Monday he had received a phone call from Dr Cardona halfway through the bids evaluation process ordering him to dissolve a technical committee due to a conflict of interest among its members.
Speaking about the matter for the first time, Dr Cardona confirmed he had made the call, adding he had done so after receiving information that a member of the government-appointed committee had a conflict of interest. He refused to name the person.
“I did not intervene in the process but stopped it,” he said.
Let’s allow the court to decide on this matter
Asked how he knew about the conflict when he was not supposed to be involved in the process, Dr Cardona said he evaluated the people the government appointed to sit on such boards and also examined their commercial interests.
Dr Cardona would not say who the member in question was but insisted he would do so once the ongoing judicial process over the licence issue was over.
“Let’s allow the court to decide on this matter and then it will be the time to make the necessary political comments,” he said.
When testifying in court, Mr Camilleri said he was not aware which member had a conflict of interest, because all four sitting on the technical committee, presided over by Judge Geoffrey Valenzia, had signed a declaration denying any conflict of interest.
Dr Cardona said he had informed the Prime Minister about his decision to stop the process and dissolve the technical committee, which was tasked with evaluating Dragonara Gaming Ltd and Eden Leisure’s bids for a new casino licence.
When the government named Eden Leisure as the preferred bidder, Dragonara instituted court action to stop the process, alleging that the competitive process was vitiated and lacked transparency.
Dragonara asked the court on Tuesday to refrain from deciding on the matter so that Judge Valenzia, who was abroad, could testify. The company is claiming that according to a journalist, the technical committee had compiled a report in which it concluded that Dragonara’s was the best bid.
The government did not inform Eden Leisure and Dragonara Gaming that the technical committee had been dissolved.