(Adds Lawrence Gonzi's, minister's statements)
Former prime minister Lawrence Gonzi was kept abreast of project closure negotiations with Skanska conducted by the Foundation for Medical Services, new evidence shows.
On January 7, 2009, then FMS president Paul Camilleri wrote to Dr Gonzi asking him for a meeting “to discuss the contract closure negotiations with Skanska”.
Mr Camilleri informed the prime minister that he held negotiations around Christmas time with Skanska. “I feel that a good compromise solution was reached,” he wrote.
Dr Gonzi wrote back on the same day informing Mr Camilleri that he would ask his secretary to set up an appointment for the following week.
However, in a statement (see below) this evening, Dr Gonzi said the requested meeting never took place.
The email exchange is recorded in a list of emails that Mr Camilleri’s lawyer, George Hyzler, forwarded to judge Philip Sciberras on Monday evening after the Mater Dei inquiry was concluded.
Dr Sciberras forwarded the additional information to the Health Minister, who had commissioned the inquiry, and this was handed over to the police and the Attorney General.
A week after the email to the prime minister, Mr Camilleri wrote to Lars-Erik [representing Skanska] informing him that the FMS board approved the “terms of settlement agreement”.
From a previous exchange in December, it is clear that the terms of settlement included the now famous waiver clause, which Skanska had forwarded to Mr Camilleri on December 19.
Dr Gonzi had told Times of Malta last week that after consulting some of his [former] Cabinet colleagues, the waiver clause was never put to Cabinet for approval.
Dr Gonzi had said: “I understand that the wording covers outstanding issues raised and negotiated between both parties but does not include waiver of bad workmanship and/or fraudulent activity or any other statutory responsibilities according to Maltese law. In any event I would have never authorised or countenanced such a blanket waiver.”
According to the emails, on Boxing Day, 2008, Mr Camilleri forwarded the terms of settlement received from Skanska – including the waiver clause – to Alan Caruana, who at the time headed the secretariat of former finance minister Tonio Fenech.
The emails handed over by Mr Camilleri to judge Sciberras record the various exchanges he had with Skanska and FMS’s legal representatives over the concluding agreement for Mater Dei. The exchanges took place between December 2008 and April 2009.
The very last communication in the chain is an email to former health minister John Dalli, in which Mr Camilleri informed him that the project closure agreement had been signed in February.
Requested meeting never took place - Lawrence Gonzi
In a statement this evening, Dr Gonzi confirmed Mr Camilleri had requested a meeting but said it never took place primarily because of other commitments he had that month, including an official visit to Germany.
He reiterated that the Project Closure Agreement had not been taken to Cabinet.
He also insisted that Mr Camilleri’s notes showed that it was not true that the waiver clauses led to the government losing its right to take action against bad workmanship, or against people who defrauded or falsified declarations during the construction period.
It was also not true that the government lost any right given to it by law because of a waiver clause. This could clearly be seen from Mr Camilleri’s notes which explained in detail the legal advice given by the firm Camilleri Preziosi.
Dr Gonzi said it was thus strange how the government had publicly declared it lost its right to seek damages when it knew very well that this was not true and when it had, in writing, the legal advice given before the Project Closure Agreement was signed.
Minister 'baffled'
In a reaction following Dr Gonzi’s statement, Health Minister Konrad Mizzi said he was “honestly baffled” by the latest developments.
He said that following the publication of the inquiry, Mr Camilleri divulged the e-mail exchanges and Dr Gonzi was now saying that a meeting on such an important matter as the project closure agreement was not held. Yet, the agreement was signed a month later.
He said he was also baffled by Dr Gonzi’s statement that the contract was never taken to Cabinet.
Dr Mizzi said that even if Dr Gonzi was not aware of the contents of the agreement, his finance minister at the time knew because one particular e-mail sent to Alan Caruana, the head of Tonio Fenech’s secretariat, included an attachment with the actual terms of the agreement.
“It is evident that the Nationalist administration had known what was going on and the protagonists are today in panic mode.”
Dr Mizzi said that although Dr Gonzi was trying to downplay the issue of the waiver, the FMS did not challenge Skanska over defects in reservoirs in 2011 precisely because Skanska quoted the waiver.