A fifth of bids received by Enemalta’s Fuel Procurement Committee between 2008 and 2011 were submitted late but several of them still won contracts.

Some of the bids were late by a few minutes but others by almost an hour, the Public Accounts Committee heard yesterday as it continued to examine procurement procedures flagged up by the Auditor General as showing serious shortcomings.

According to an exercise carried out by the National Audit Office, 31 of 153 bids considered by the FPC in that period were late and nine of them went on to win a fuel supply contract.

The exercise had been requested by Parliamentary Secretary for Justice Owen Bonnici in the light of testimony about the way FPC received bids.

Keith Mercieca, head of the NAO’s investigations section, said that of the nine winning late bids, six contracts were awarded to BB Energy and three went to Totsa, a subsidiary of the French oil giant Total represented in Malta by rogue trader George Farrugia.

Mr Farrugia was granted a presidential pardon this year to tell all after the police accused several Enemalta officials of receiving lucrative commissions to favour particular oil companies.

One of the witnesses was Petroleum Division financial controller Godfrey Scicluna who explained how Enemalta always sought credit terms from fuel suppliers because of its financial situation.

“The financial situation at Enemalta left it no option but to dig into overdrafts to make payments for the day-to-day running of the company. We always asked for credit terms to be able to settle payments for consignments of petrol and diesel,” he told the PAC.

On Wednesday, the PAC will hear the last witness, current Enemalta chief executive Louis Giordamina.

The nine late bids that won contracts