Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt has reiterated that he never, ever discussed the business of tenders for oil by Enemalta with George Farrugia or had any conversation with him that remotely touched on such subjects.

This, he said in a statement, applied to the period referred to in the Sunday Times story of yesterday (some 8 to 10 years ago) or any period before or since.

Dr Gatt issued his statement in reply to Labour Party comments.

Joseph Muscat yesterday called on the prime minister and Dr Gatt to explain their position after e-mails published in the newspaper made reference to a minister, to AG and to Aust.

Mr Farrugia has been granted a presidential pardon in return for information on alleged illegal kickbacks for oil procurement by Enemalta.

In his reaction to The Sunday Times story yesterday,Dr Gatt reiterated that when he met Mr Farrugia he had never discussed the business oil procurement.

“The minister repeats once again that his denial in the first paragraph is categorical and if anyone has even a shred of proof that he discussed Enemalta oil tenders with anyone – let alone George Farrugia – then that proof should be immediately given to the Commissioner of Police,” a spokesman for Dr Gatt said.

The spokesman said that Dr Gatt had also met Mr Farrugia – in the presence of a number of his partners and ministry officials – regarding a storage project they were developing and which the ministry was involved in from a maritime point of view.

“The e-mails you refer to do not imply anything contrary to what the minister said and none of them even remotely refer(s) to Enemalta oil tenders. In fact, one of them does not even refer to the minister at all seeing that ‘A.G.’ could be anyone, another one actually refers to Mediterranean Oil Bunkering Corporation storage facilities in which George Farrugia was active as well, and the third one merely states that Tancred Tabone, then chairman of Enemalta, will be meeting the minister, which he did regularly.”