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Also taking the witness stand was David De Marco the former accountant at Priceclub who joined the company in 1999 along with accountant George Vella. De Marco told the court he used to participate in Priceclub’s management meetings with Wallace Fino and Chris Gauci. “In these management meetings the problems the company faced used to be discussed. But I do not remember a particular problem.”
De Marco did however remember the company’s financial problems and told the court: “because of the problems we faced we used to discuss how we could solve the financial problems in the meetings.”
The company’s former accountant described to the court how the idea of purchasing some sort of new computer system that would include control over stocks. “If I remember rightly we eventually introduced the system in one or two outlets.”
From the beginning of 2000 De Marco said he was in charge of preparing management accounts for Priceclub. “These management accounts did not give a positive impression of the company. They were not the subject of discussion at every management meeting but there was a time when we used to discuss them.”
De Marco said that as a result of the discussions the companies pricing policy was once changed, but added: “As far as I can remember we never discussed closing the company because of the losses. Our discussions always centred around how we could improve profitability.”
Several former suppliers of Priceclub, who stand to lose upwards of Lm8 million following the supermarkets’ spectacular crash, have often claimed they spoke to Priceclub officials about the financial situation of the company, but De Marco told the court: “During the time I spent with the company, as far as I know, nobody from outside the company asked for information about what was happening inside the company.”
However De Marco said he did meet creditors and discussed re-financing terms with them. “I never gave details of the company to the creditors. I never told them the company was regularly making losses.
“I never envisioned the accounts with the idea that the company would close, so there was no time when I thought the company was not sustainable.”
De Marco said he told the creditors he did not have enough money to pay them and that he would try and pay them later. “The creditors used to grumble, but they had few alternatives.”
It was in April of 2001 that things took a turning for the worse and De Marco said that after that date suppliers would only supply if paid in cash.
“When the company closed down the directors asked me to finalise the accounts, but since many of the employees in the accounts department were then involved with other work, I worked on them on a part time basis.”
De Marco then told the court that the work on the accounts was continued from the offices of PricewaterHouse Coopers.
“In this work I brought the accounts up to September 2001, and during the summer PricewaterHouse Coopers were working only on a half day basis, and we could not work in the afternoons. When summer ended I had a personal problem and this was a major setback for me in doing this work.”
“More recently I once again met the directors to discuss how the work could continue, but the person that does the imputing has her exams and when she is done with them we will continue on the accounts.”
When counter-examined by lawyer Dr Gianfranco Gauci, David De Marco said “discussions were taking place to discuss how profitability could be improved. I don’t remember, I can’t say because one would have to see the accounts to verify whether the companies profitability was improving over time.
Asked whether he had told Victor Zammit that by January 2001 the companies situation could be turning round, De Marco said “I do not remember ever telling him so.” Asked whether he excluded telling him that the company would have a reversal of fortunes by January 2001, “I don’t know, I don’t remember.”
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