The former CEO of Malta Investment Management Company Ltd, Mario Mizzi, was yesterday charged with asking for a bribe during the adjudication process of the tenders for the super yacht facility.The tense arraignment sitting, in which defence lawyer Joe Giglio grilled Assistant Police Commissioner Michael Cassar, ended with Magistrate Antonio Mizzi remarking how the prima facie case against the accused was “risky”.

If you take care of me, I am in a position to help you

Taking the witness stand, AC Cassar, who led the prosecution, said the investigation centred on two main points, the first being a private conversation between Mr Mizzi, who sat on the adjudication board, and Paul Cardona, a director of one of the bidding companies.

During that conversation, Mr Mizzi allegedly told Paul Cardona “if you take care of me, I am in a position to help you”.

The second issue hinges on how one of the two companies which made it to the final stage had been downgraded and effectively eliminated from the bidding process, after Mr Mizzi had spoken to the foreign technical consultant, Sue Hall.

When Mr Mizzi was questioned by Police Commissioner John Rizzo, the accused at first admitted to speaking to Mr Cardona but then changed his version after being given time to reflect, AC Cassar said.

In one of three police statements, Mr Mizzi also said that although he could have uttered something similar to what was being alleged, he had not been referring to money at all and in fact he did not admit to taking or giving money, AC Cassar said.

With regard to Ms Hall, the assistant commissioner said that as a government technical consultant, she had drawn up a report about the bidders in which percentage points were awarded according to their technical competence.

The company SYC, which had partnered with a French firm called Couach, was awarded 71 per cent. However, there was a suspicious re-evaluation down to 50 per cent and later to 48 per cent, AC Cassar said.Ostensibly, the reason for the downgrade was that the French partner company Couach had gone into administration and had new owners. However, AC Cassar cast doubt on the logic of this downgrade, pointing out that despite changing ownership, Couach had only really changed its owner and its name, into CNC, because its assets and employees remained.

Moreover, he referred to two e-mails which were exchanged between Mr Mizzi and Ms Hall in which Ms Hall downgraded the company to 48 per cent, essentially putting them out of the adjudication process, because she thought that the Privatisation Unit of the government was not comfortable working with that company.

He said that these circumstances, coupled with the allegations made by Mr Cardona, were extremely suspicious to the police.During cross examination, lawyer Joseph Giglio pointed out that Ms Hall had given a point-by-point justification in her e-mail for her downgrading from 70 to 50 per cent.

As for the second downgrade to 48 per cent, which was urged by the accused and the board he chaired, Dr Giglio again referred to the e-mail exchange and pointed to his client’s arguments.

Reading excerpts from the e-mails, Dr Giglio said his client had simply pointed out that since the bidder was found to be so lacking as to deserve a 50 per cent score, they should be excluded from the race and the only way to do this was to give them a score below 50 per cent.In fact, in another email the adjudication board had told Ms Hall to downgrade the company further to eliminate them from the process.

As the sitting drew to a close, the lawyer told the magistrate that he was not contesting the prima facie evidence, so the case would get going.

Even though he believed the case would collapse at prima facie stage he wanted to secure an acquittal, the lawyer said. In agreeing to this, the magistrate remarked to the prosecution: “Let’s be clear, the prima facie, is very risky”.