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, this newspaper has learnt.

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.

The technical committee presided over by Judge Valenzia was appointed by the privatisation unit to identify the best bid for the new 10-year casino licence.

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.

“Two had already signed the report and I was trying to contact the member who voted against to see whether he would sign. He never signed it as in the meantime I received an e-mail from the privatisation unit that the committee was being suspended.”

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.

“Since I didn’t present a report, I can’t tell you what was in it,” he said.

The other members of the technical committee – Kevin Fenech, Jesmond Pace and Joshua Zammit – denied they had any conflict of interest as claimed by Economy Minister Chris Cardona.

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.

Dr Cardona said he had no problem giving details on the conflict of interest at the end of a court case on the issue. However, the minister has still not spoken even though the case was concluded last month.

More than a year after the close of the bidding process, the government announced that Eden Leisure was the preferred bidder.

The other shortlisted bid was from Dragonara gaming, which asked the court to halt the process and accused the government of a vitiated process.

The court rejected the case, stating it failed to meet the legal requirements needed for an injunction as Dragonara had other legal avenues to obtain a remedy in case of damages.