A court yesterday ruled there was enough evidence to indict Enemalta’s former financial controller, Tarcisio Mifsud, who is charged with corruption in connection with the oil scandal.
The prosecution alleges that Mr Mifsud received commissions on oil tenders given to French oil company Total and split the kickbacks with the former petroleum division chief, Alfred Mallia, also charged with corruption.
Mr Mifsud, 68, of Żebbuġ, and Mr Mallia, 68, of Qormi are two of seven men charged in court over the oil procurement scandal and both are pleading not guilty to corruption between 1998 and 2003.
Magistrate Claire Stafrace Zammit yesterday continued hearing evidence against Mr Mifsud, with documents exhibited to back the prosecution’s case.
Enemalta representative Anthony Bonello said Mr Mifsud had joined the company in 1984 as financial controller and officially retired in February 2004. In effect, his last day of work was in October 2003 because of accumulated vacation leave.
He exhibited the minutes of meetings held between 1998 and 2004 when Mr Mifsud was finance manager. He pointed out that all the minutes of meetings held in 2001 were missing.
Antoine Galea, also representing Enemalta, exhibited the contracts that the company signed with Total and its subsidiaries between 1998 and 2003.
The first covered the period August 18-25, 1999, for the stock procurement of 20,220 metric tonnes of gasoil that Total had stored at Enemalta’s facilities in Ħas-Saptan.
The 1999 agreement was a pivotal part of the evidence given by Police Inspector Angelo Gafà in a previous sitting. He testified that George Farrugia – the local agent of Total who has been granted a presidential pardon in return for information on the oil scandal – said that his relationship with Mr Mallia had started in connection with oil storage at Ħas-Saptan.
Before 1999, Mr Farrugia had reached an agreement with Total in London to engage in talks for a storage agreement. Mr Mallia helped facilitate this but asked for a commission, Mr Gafà said.
The relationship changed when a strike by port workers that same year left Enemalta’s oil reserves running low. To plug the hole, Enemalta, through a direct order, had decided to tap into 20,000 tonnes of gasoil that Total had stored at Ħas-Saptan.
Mr Mallia had made direct contact with the company but Mr Farrugia insisted the sale should go through him as he was the local agent.
In 2000, Mr Farrugia visited Mr Mallia in hospital after he was injured in a traffic accident and was told that Mr Mifsud wanted to speak to him.
He met the former financial controller and was told that he wanted “what Alfred Mallia used to get”. From then on, he started paying Mr Mifsud after every consignment, Mr Gafà told the court.
Lawyers Anna Mallia and Edward Gatt represented Mr Mifsud.
Superintendent Paul Vassallo and Mr Gafà are prosecuting.
The case continues.