Economy Minister Chris Cardona ordered the suspension of a technical committee evaluating bids for a new casino licence after a final report had already been prepared.

Contacted by The Sunday Times of Malta, the chairman of the government-appointed committee, retired judge Jeffrey Valenzia, said the suspension came about just before the presentation of his report.

“We had not exactly concluded our work but we had discussed the matter and we had sort of voted [on the bids]. I then prepared a report which I was waiting to pass on to a member to sign and who had voted against.

“It was at that time that the committee was suspended. So we didn't officially present a report,” the judge said in his first comments on the case. 

According to Judge Valenzia, the draft report had already been signed by two of the four-member technical committee and he was only awaiting a final signature from the other members before passing it on to the Privatisation Unit. 

Judge Valenzia said he had not received any explanation for the committee’s suspension. However, he declined to name the committee member who voted against and refused to sign. 

Dr Cardona said he intervened in the evaluation process and ordered the committee’s suspension after he got to know that some members had a conflict of interest. But the other members of the technical committee – Kevin Fenech, Jesmond Pace and Joshua Zammit – denied they had any conflict of interest. 

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