A public cleansing contractor accused of bribing a former Rabat mayor as well as underhandedly influencing the award of a tender issued by the San Ġwann council, has been cleared of all criminal liability.

John Borg, 56, had been targeted by criminal prosecution for allegedly bribing former Labour mayor of Rabat Frank Fabri back in 2006 and trading in influence to secure, in favour of his colleague, the award of a public cleansing contract tendered by the San Ġwann council in September 2009.

It all began when confidential information reached the police regarding the son of a former Nationalist mayor of San Ġwann, who had allegedly been soliciting bribes from bidders, hoping to secure the award of the public cleansing contract.

Earlier on, Mr Borg had been awarded a tender for manual sweeping at Rabat, being targeted by default notices a while later when his services were deemed not to have been up to scratch.

It was some three years later when Mr Borg’s colleague, Sammy Borg, was asked to fork out money in favour of Noel Agius, the son of the former San Ġwann mayor, by way of securing favourable treatment in a public cleansing tendering process at the locality, that the matter was brought to the notice of the police.

In a series of conversations, underhandedly recorded by John Borg, the latter was allegedly heard stating that, at the time when he was offering his services at Rabat, the then mayor Fabri had demanded a monthly payment of Lm150, later upped to some Lm250.

Criminal proceedings kicked off against Mr Borg, with the case landing before the Court, presided by magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech, in January 2017.

When delivering judgment, the court observed that the former mayor of Rabat had chosen to not answer questions about this case, while no other witnesses were summoned to shed light upon the alleged bribery.

Moreover, in line with current jurisprudence, the statement released by the accused, without the assistance of a lawyer, was to be discarded as evidence against him.

The audio recordings exhibited by the prosecution failed to prove that the accused was in fact the person who spoke of how he had allegedly bribed the Rabat mayor, leading to the conclusion that the bribery accusation had not been sufficiently proven.

Nor had the prosecution proven that the accused had been involved in influencing the award of the San Ġwann contract in favour of his partner, Sammy Borg, by handing money to the mayor’s son.

Indeed, Noel Agius, the mayor’s son, had later declared under oath that Sammy Borg had won the tender “without any help since he obtained the majority of votes”.

The same witness had declared “I led them to believe that I would help them win the tender as my father was the mayor of San Ġwann during that period. My father had no clue that I was dealing with John Borg and Sammy Borg and I insist that my father had no involvement in anything related to these events”.

“It was amply proved that Agius never intended to influence his father,” the Court observed.

Nor had John Borg’s involvement in the San Ġwann affair been proven, the court concluded after noting that all documents referred to “Sammy Borg Enterprises Ltd or Sammy Borg,” never mentioning the accused.

What did emerge was that John Borg had only entered the scene after the agreement between Sammy Borg and Noel Agius had been sealed, the court said, adding that there was no proof that he had been present when the money was handed over.

In the light of all evidence, the accused could have been no more than an “accessory after the fact,” a concept yet totally alien under Maltese law, the court declared, pronouncing an acquittal.