A former senior official at Malta Enterprise who had been fined by a magistrates’ court for disclosing secrets, has been cleared on appeal since there had been no ‘official secret’ but simply information received ‘in the line of his business.’
Ryan Borg, as senior executive at Malta Enterprise, had been responsible for the handling of the EU Energy Grants Scheme which involved the processing of quotations submitted by applicants for the relative funding.
Upon the expiry of his contract of employment in March 2012, Mr Borg had taken up a new job at solar energy company Di Natura Ltd, as personal assistant to the director.
The company had submitted quotations relative to the EU energy grants for Endstone Ltd, a member of the Vivendo Group, at the time when Mr Borg had been handling the scheme at Malta Enterprise.
Shortly after moving to his new job, Mr Borg had contacted Chris Gauci at the Vivendo Group to follow up the pending application regarding the solar energy grants and allegedly enticing him to take up the quotations and services offered by Di Natura Ltd., an allegation that was later denied by Mr Borg.
Following that call, the chief legal officer at Malta Enterprise had reported to the police an alleged breach of an official secret by its former official, who had been barred under oath from disclosing information gained by virtue of his former office.
Investigations led to criminal action being instituted against Mr Borg for the alleged disclosure of official secrets. He had denied the charges but was declared guilty in December 2017 and fined €2,500.
In the course of appeal proceedings, it was observed that Mr Borg had denied outright and all along that he had ever tried to influence Mr Gauci to take up Di Natura’s offer, pointing out that he had simply been acting upon the instructions of his new employer to follow up Endstone Ltd’s pending application for EU grants.
Moreover, the numerous testimonies and documents put forward, failed to prove “what was the secret allegedly disclosed by the appellant,” the court, presided by Madam Justice Consuelo Scerri Herrera, observed.
The quotations processed by Mr Borg when still a Malta Enterprise official, had not only been known to himself but had been the subject of discussion at a meeting at the Malta Enterprise offices between Mr Gauci, Mr Godfrey Formosa, Di Natura Director and two Malta Enterprise senior officials.
The Court of Criminal Appeal deemed “it somewhat strange that Mr Gauci had felt the need to report the appellant” and concluded that there had been a wrong appreciation of facts by the first court.
The information allegedly amounting to an ‘official secret’ had been handed over by Mr Gauci himself to the appellant and the latter, even if not “ethically correct,” had followed up that information by contacting Mr Gauci after taking up his new post at Di Natura.
The information constituted “no specific professional secret” but had simply been received by the appellant “in his line of business,” the court declared.
As for his oath of office, the court observed that the prosecution had presented a photocopy of a sworn declaration written under a Malta Enterprise letterhead without producing the original, allegedly deposited at the AG’s office, under the signature of a Commissioner for Oaths.
Besides lacking the prescribed form, the authenticity of this document had not been proved by the prosecution, the court observed.
In the light of such evidence, the court upheld the appeal, revoked the judgment and cleared the appellant of all criminal liability.
Lawyer Jason Grima was defence counsel.