Richard Cachia Caruana has again called for the publication of a 1997 Air Malta inquiry to pinpoint managerial responsibility for omitting crucial guarantees during the airline’s purchase of its beleaguered RJ70 fleet.
The former Air Malta director wants ex-Labour minister Karmenu Vella to release the findings, which were commissioned by the airline’s board of directors but never made public.
Responding to a series of allegations made by Frans Camilleri – a former group head of the company – Mr Cachia Caruana invited Mr Camilleri to publish the inquiry results in Mr Vella’s stead.
Last week, Mr Camilleri wrote a letter to The Times contradicting Mr Cachia Caruana’s claim that Air Malta’s management had agreed with the RJ deal.
He alleged the negotiations of the RJs’ purchase was “vitiated” as, while chairing the negotiations team, he was instructed not to discuss the purchase price and financial conditions of the deal with British Aerospace.
Mr Camilleri said his negotiating team was not responsible for failing to include trip cost guarantees in the contract, as Mr Cachia Caruana claimed.
In his column today (page 22), former Labour Finance Minister Lino Spiteri describes Mr Camilleri’s version as an “honest summary”, which cost the company some €68 million in impairment losses.
Contacted by The Sunday Times yesterday, Mr Cachia Caruana insisted the inquiry should be published.
He said Mr Camilleri’s letter reconfirmed that the board’s unanimous decision was subject to the inclusion of the crucial trip cost guarantees.
“Specifically, the board approved the purchase of the fleet on the condition that the manufacturer provided a 10-year guarantee on these costs,” Mr Cachia Caruana said.
“Had it been inserted, as the board requested, this guarantee would have significantly diluted the company’s risk exposure to the operational issues referred to by Mr Camilleri.”
The former Air Malta director said: “What Mr Camilleri stopped short of stating in his letter is that when it transpired that the 10-year trip cost guarantee was omitted from the final contract, the other directors and I had strongly underlined the seriousness of this omission.”
While again inviting Mr Vella to publish the document, Mr Cachia Caruana added: “Perhaps Mr Camilleri can oblige instead.”
Former Air Malta chairman Joseph Tabone, who was there when the RJ deal was made, did not wish to comment on Mr Camilleri’s allegations.
“Although I can assure you that I have many things to say on this issue and many others, I choose not to comment, at least for the time being,” he said, when contacted.
The RJs’ controversy, which goes back almost 20 years, was resurrected after MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando claimed Mr Cachia Caruana had colluded with Labour.
The PN executive, after hearing Mr Pullicino Orlando’s case, threw out his request to expel one of its main strategists from the party as no evidence was brought against Mr Cachia Caruana.