Files containing police oil corruption investigations sat in former Police Commissioner Peter Paul Zammit’s office for 15 months.
A box with nine volumes of investigations was transferred to the commissioner’s office on April 12, 2013, the day Mr Zammit was appointed, and returned to investigating officers in July this year when his appointment was terminated.
The revelation was made yesterday by Police Superintendent Paul Vassallo while testifying in front of the Public Accounts Committee.
“I have no plausible explanation why the files remained in the Police Commissioner’s office,” Superintendent Vassallo said when asked by PAC chairman Jason Azzopardi the reason for the file transfer.
Superintendent Vassallo is the only remaining officer from the original team that investigated the oil procurement scandal that came to light in January last year. Assistant Commissioner Michael Cassar and Inspector Angelo Gafa, who was the prime investigator, were last year transferred to the secret service.
The story of corruption and bribery was uncovered by Malta Today and a handful of former Enemalta officials were charged in court, including former chairman Tancred Tabone and financial controller Tarcisio Mifsud.
Oil trader George Farrugia was given a presidential pardon to tell all about the bribes he dished out to secure preferential treatment for his international clients.
The parliamentary committee is querying the findings of a National Audit Office probe into Enemalta’s fuel procurement mechanism that found gross mismanagement and poor record keeping.
Superintendent Vassallo said the files were only returned to the investigating officer, Inspector Ray Ferris, in July when Acting Police Commissioner Ray Zammit replaced Peter Paul Zammit.
Mr Vassallo confirmed that one of the two pending issues that still had to be decided was whether Mr Farrugia’s brothers should be arraigned.
The superintendent said the information Mr Farrugia gave them uncovered oil corruption until 2005.
Pressed by government MP Justyne Caruana to say whether the lack of information in the post-2005 period was due to the police not asking Mr Farrugia about it, Mr Vassallo said the police had no facts of corruption to ask about.
“I trust that it was in Mr Farrugia’s interest to tell us if he knew of corruption post-2005,” Mr Vassallo said, adding the presidential pardon made it incumbent on Mr Farrugia to tell all.
“Could there be pleasures yet to come? I don’t know, I cannot tell the future,” he told MPs.
Asked by Dr Caruana whether former Enemalta chairman Alex Tranter’s name had cropped up, Mr Vassallo said it had in a separate investigation related to credit card use.