Enemalta’s Chief Commercial Officer, Alan Micallef, said today that he repeatedly warned the corporation in writing that four Trafigura shipments of fuel oil that were not within the sulphur content specifications and constituted breaches of contract.

Testifying before Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, he said he would personally have terminated the contract.

The fact that, in spite of the lengthy internal correspondence, Trafigura agent George Farrugia had wanted to meet Enemalta officials face to face to discuss the shortcomings showed the gravity of the situation, he said.

By hindsight Mr Micallef agreed that someone at Enemalta had been dragging their feet for a whole year despite his warnings, and finally Trafigura had been fined $250,000 dollars. Rather than fining the company, the shipments should not have been accepted, but that would have had to depend on stocks of fuel oil in hand, he said.

He said the sulphur content had been the most important aspect of each shipment. Other shipments delivered not within specifications were considered minor aspects.