Tonio Fenech has shrugged off court evidence about the infamous handmade clock he was gifted by an oil trading family at the centre of the Enemalta corruption scandal.
“If you look at all the evidence, it is clear that the Labour Party’s allegations were completely false,” the former Finance Minister told Times of Malta yesterday evening after the PL urged him to “shoulder responsibility”.
Labour was reacting to court evidence which showed the Tal-Lira clock given to Mr Fenech years ago cost between Lm400 and Lm500 (€900 and €1,200) and was paid for by Power Plan Ltd, a company owned by the Farrugia brothers.
“All this means that Minister Fenech lied during the electoral campaign when he said that this was a token of admiration and that it only cost a few hundred euro,” Labour claimed.
But Mr Fenech insisted Labour lied when its exponents claimed he was given a gift of €5,000 during his time as minister by rogue oil trader George Farrugia. He also stressed that he did not know the clock was paid for by Power Plan until his meeting with the Police Commissioner during the election campaign.
One of the people to take the witness stand during yesterday’s court proceedings was Ines Farrugia, the person who hand-crafted the clock.
Asked whether she gave the clock as a token of her admiration – as Mr Fenech had claimed during the election campaign – she said she only admired her husband and children. She added that she made the clock for Mr Fenech because her husband had asked her to do so. She said the clock’s cost price would be Lm200 but it would sell for more than that.
Meanwhile, her husband Ray Farrugia said he had met Mr Fenech at a Christmas party where their wives had spoken about clocks.
“We decided later to give him one... There was no connection between our business and the gift,” said Mr Farrugia.
During his testimony, Mr Farrugia gave three separate reasons for taking his brother George Farrugia along to deliver the clock to Mr Fenech.
He said he needed someone to carry the clock because his back was hurting but he also wanted his brother to meet Mr Fenech and for their other brothers to be assured that the gift had actually been delivered, as agreed.
George Farrugia, who has since been given a Presidential pardon to spill the beans on the oil scandal, said Power Plan paid around Lm500 (€1,200) for the clock which he carried to Mr Fenech’s flat.
Speaking to Times of Malta, Mr Fenech said George Farrugia had mentioned the clock in his statements to the police about his involvement in the oil scandal.
However, as former Police Commissioner John Rizzo said in court, the police had investigated this matter and found “no link to corruption”. In fact, no action was taken against Mr Fenech for this reason, Mr Rizzo said.
“That is the most fundamental issue. It could have cost a million euro or a euro. The question is whether the gift was given to me to try and influence me into taking a particular decision,” Mr Fenech said.
According to the timeline presented by the Farrugias, the clock was given to him when he was still a parliamentary secretary and was not responsible for energy, Mr Fenech added.
“What do I have to do with the fact that they decided to cover the expenses for the clock through Power Plan? They always told me she (Ines Farrugia) was giving it to me, not Power Plan. I cannot be blamed for that. I can only be held responsible for what I was aware,” he said.
“If Power Plan gave me this gift, I wouldn’t have accepted it. I accepted it because it was coming from Mr Farrugia’s wife,” he said, adding that Power Plan probably paid for the clock to save tax.
Asked why he did not say during the election campaign that the clock was paid for by Power Plan, Mr Fenech said: “Why should I say it? What do I have to do with what they decided? When it was mentioned to me at the police headquarters it was irrelevant.
“I could only decide at the time whether to accept the gift or not. Back then it seemed very genuine. I didn’t even know they worked in oil, only that Ray Farrugia was chairman of John’s Garage. I didn’t even know Power Plan existed,” he added.
The court testimonies emerged from the libel case instituted by Mr Fenech against Chris Cardona and Evarist Bartolo – now both ministers – over their claim last February that Mr Fenech was given a gift of €5,000.
During the proceedings it also emerged that two clocks were donated to the PN. In a press statement, the PN said it had received a clock in 2007 which had been given away during a fundraising lottery.
PN also stood by Mr Fenech and asked Labour to respect the court process instead of continuing to throw mud and make false allegations.
PN said the clock was not worth anywhere close to €5,000, was given to Mr Fenech at a time when he was not even minister responsible for Enemalta and was found to have no link to the oil scandal.
The court evidence also showed that the gift was given by Ray and Ines Farrugia with no ulterior motives, not by rogue oil trader George Farrugia as Labour had claimed. His assistance in the delivery of the clock was “incidental”, said the PN.