Mario Mizzi, CEO of Mimcol and a member of the Privatisation Unit, this morning filed a judicial protest against Paul Cardona, claiming that Mr Cardona had made false corruption allegations about him to the police. The case involves the privatisation of the superyachts facility of Malta Shipyards. Mimcol is the holding company of government enterprises.

Mr Mizzi said he had never heard the allegations before he was called in for questioning by the police. He said he could not understand how he could be faced with such allegations when the tendering process had been called off and when, according to Mr Cardona himself, this allegation went back more than 18 months.

Mr Mizzi said such allegations of corruption were completely false, slanderous and without foundation.

He explained that Mr Cardona through Marine Consultancy Services Ltd, formed part of one of the bidding consortia for the superyacht facility. This consortium, in the view of the Evaluation Committee, did not meet the necessary requirements. Neither did the other consortia which submitted proposals, and the Privatisation Unit had therefore invited them to participate in a new call for tenders with better offers.

He said that some of the bidders had joined forces for the second bid, while the consortium which included Marine Consultancy Services protested over this development.

Subsequently the Privatisation Unit stopped the process.

Mr Mizzi said that whatever Mr Cardona's aims were, the fact remain that the bid of the consortium for which he worked had not been selected because it was not satisfactory.

The process had been handled in a meticulous and honest manner by the Privatisation Unit, Mr Mizzi said, and Mr Cardona's claims were malicious and aimed at casting a bad light on a transparent process.