The discussion by the Public Accounts Committee on the Auditor General’s (NAO) analysis of the effectiveness of Enemalta Corporation’s fuel procurement has adjourned sine die.
The longest inquiry by a parliamentary committee lasted more than two years.
Since August 2013, 47 meetings were held and 37 people testified during 100 hours of debate.
The government and the Op-position agreed that they had no more witnesses to summon, except for four persons who claimed the right to remain silent and a foreigner who did not turn up.
The committee adjourned sine die until the conclusion of constitutional court proceedings by the persons who did not testify.
The NAO’s report was triggered during a parliamentary sitting in June 2011, when Leo Brincat (PL) suggested to the Auditor General the possibility of investigating Enemalta’s fuel procurement.
The NAO audit sought to determine the effectiveness of the corporation’s fuel procurement and focused on the whole process, from the tendering stage to the tender award, the delivery and payment.
The NAO’s primary concern about the corporation’s Fuel Procurement Committee was the absence of a policy framework up to end of 2010.
Poor record-keeping by this committee was a key shortcoming persisting up to May 2011. The minutes of the meetings lacked the most basic level of detail and bore no information about the discussions and the decisions taken, NAO had said.
Records of stock movements, including consumption and supply, were also found to be poor.
Tabone, Sammut and Cassar’s lawyers insisted before the PAC that their clients had the right to remain silent
After the report’s publication in July 2013, it was agreed that the Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee should discuss the Auditor General’s report.
The persons heard by the committee included the Auditor General, former Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, former ministers Austin Gatt and Tonio Fenech, former police commissioner John Rizzo, former Enemalta chairmen Alex Tranter and William Spiteri Bailey as well as several corporation and other officers including Karl Camilleri, Antoine Galea, Pippo Pandolfino and Philip Borg.
George Farrugia, who was granted presidential pardon to tell all he knows on alleged wrongdoings in oil procurement by Enemalta testified as well.
The other witnesses included Malta Today managing editor Saviour Balzan, Prof. Joseph Falzon, MP Claudio Grech and former MP Jeffery Pullicino Orlando.
Tancred Tabone’s, Frank Sammut’s and Anthony Cassar’s lawyers insisted before the Public Accounts Committee that their clients had the right to remain silent and could not be forced to give evidence before the committee.
Constitutional proceedings are under way in court in this regard.
Last week, Speaker Anġlu Farrugia ruled that Trafigura agent Naeem Ahmed could not be compelled by an arrest warrant to testify before the Public Accounts Committee as long as he was out of Malta.
The committee agreed to commission the research assistant detailed with the committee to draw up a non-partisan technical report on the exercise.