Nationalist MP Claudio Grech, this evening denied ever having met oil trader George Farrugia while he headed the secretariat of former minister Austin Gatt. He said he only met Mr Farrugia once, in 2012, and oil trading and Enemalta were not discussed.
Mr Grech was replying to questions before the Public Accounts Committee as it resumed its consideration of a report by the Auditor-General on oil procurement irregularities between 2008 and 2013.
Mr Grech said he was not a member of the secretariat after 2008, when the irregularities are said to have happened. He met Mr Farrugia once, at Mr Farrugia's request, in 2012 when he (Mr Grech) had decided to become an election candidate.
That was a getting-to-know-you meeting and they never spoke about Enemalta.
(Mr Farrugia, an oil trader who allegedly offered commissions for Enemalta oil contracts, was granted a presidential pardon in order to reveal all on the oil procurement irregularities).
Mr Grech said he had not known what business Mr Farrugia was involved in but he knew there was trouble between the Farrugia brothers.
After the oil procurement scandal broke, he met one of Mr Farrugia's brothers, Ray along with one his sons, Christian Farrugia. They had complained because he had mentioned John's Garage (owned by the Farrugia brothers) which, they said, was not involved in the oil procurement business.
Mr Grech said that although he was close to Dr Gatt and assisted in his political activities, he was not involved in their funding. He never saw anyone making donations to Dr Gatt's campaign.
At the start of the meeting, Mr Grech said that as head of Dr Gatt's secretariat he was involved in reforming various entities with a view to improving their entities. Those reforms included a review of recruitment procedures and the appointment of members of management, who were expected to operate autonomously of the ministry.
He read guidelines issued to members of management and tabled confidentiality undertakings and a declaration they were expected to make to avoid conflicts of interest.
These, he said, also applied to Enemalta. In 2002-2003, the period he was referring to, the corporation had no strategic plan, it was making considerably financial losses, it had a chaotic purchasing system and no plans how to raise the funds to pay its debts and invest in its infrastructure. There also was no internal audit function.
During the meeting, when Mr Grech was asked where he used to live and whether he had registered his address on a Valletta garage for electoral purposes, committee chairman Jason Azzopardi criticised the members of the government for asking questions which were not related to oil procurement. He said that if the government MPs wanted to stretch the meetings of the committee till the end of the legislature, they should do so.
Mr Grech said a number of Labour MPs and candidates were not registered on their home addresses but other addresses such as offices or parents' homes. Among them, on his district, were Jose' Herrera, Luciano Busuttil, Chris Cardona, Deo Debattista and David Farrugia Sacco.