Between May 1, 1999 and April 30, 2004 the Nationalist government gave Simon Busuttil, then head of the Malta-EU Information Centre, €82,144.63 worth of consultancy services. Foreign Minister George Vella told Carmelo Abela (PL) that the payments were made to Europa Research Consultancy Services as part of a contract with Ganado Sammut Advocates.
Dr Busuttil was also paid €1,130.45. Dr Vella said it could not be verified whether this pertained to fringe benefits such as mobile telephony and the fully-expensed car mentioned in the contract.
It had been calculated that Dr Busuttil had been entitled to a maximum of 1,650 litres of petrol, but it could not be verified if the payment had been made or not.
Dr Vella said there was no evidence of a call for tenders for the services having been made in 1999. The contract had been renewed annually by direct order.