Enemalta chief finance officer Antoine Galea said yesterday that he was instructed not to issue pending payments to former chief executive Karl Camilleri before he returned documents he had taken with him when he left the corporation..
Testifying before the Public Accounts Committee, which is discussing the Audit General’s report on Enemalta’s fuel procurement, which flagged serious shortcomings between 2008 and 2011, Mr Galea tabled copies of e-mails titled Catching Up After Panto and dated January 2012. The e-mail exchange was started by Mr Camilleri who left the corporation in November 2011 after serving there for three years.
In that first e-mail, Mr Camilleri asked to be paid pending dues that included outstanding leave, car allowance, the December salary and a 15 per cent bonus, following a verbal agreement with a minister who was not named.
“... I maintained my part to the letter so, as gentlemen, I assumed the corporation would keep its end of the bargain too,” he wrote.
The exchange involved former Enemalta chairman William Spiteri Bailey and executive chairman Louis Giordimaina.
Mr Galea said he had been instructed not to issue payments before Mr Camilleri returned documents he had taken on leaving Enemalta.
He pointed out e-mails in which Mr Camilleri said he would return the documents once he received payment.
In one e-mail, Mr Camilleri said he did not have all documents listed by the corporation and asked for the ones he had in hand to be collected.
“I shall thus expect that, on delivery of these items, the final sum will also be paid immediately,” Mr Camilleri wrote.
In an e-mail dated January 16, 2012, Mr Camilleri listed the outstanding payments due and closed off by saying: “All the above were agreed with the Minister and William and I was then asked to sign a paper about my request not to renew the contract. I inherently trusted William and knew the Minister would not backtrack on his agreement, so I expect payment to be done ASAP.”
The e-mail exchange, which Mr Galea said he tabled with the permission of the present CEO, did not list the amounts.