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A year has passed since MaltaToday Consulting Editor Julian Manduca died aged 47. Revisiting his major stories, Karl Schembri says his death has left a great loss for Malta’s investigative journalism
Entering the newsroom with a plastic bag in his hand was in itself a very unusual event, given that he always carried a cloth bag to save the environment from further toxic plastic, but on that day he had a real scoop in his hands.
As he walked towards my desk with his typical grin, he held the bag in front of me and asked me to look at it closely.
“Have you ever seen a bag like this?” he asked me.
“What’s so special about it?” I asked, almost irritated by the oddness of what seemed like a stupid question about the most normal plastic bag on earth.
“The size,” he continued in all seriousness. “Have you ever seen one this size?”
It seemed perfectly normal to me, a medium-sized plastic bag as far as I could see, but he said he had put a loaf of bread in it after picking it up from the grocer and it didn’t fit, apparently contrary to his grocer’s tradition of supplying plastic bags that could carry well a loaf of bread.
“So? What’s your point?” I said as I was working on some story I thought was more important than this petty matter.
“I didn’t pay eco tax. It’s strange.”
In fact, the bag in his hand was one centimetre less wide than the width for non-biodegradable plastic bags provided in the eco tax law introduced last year, which thanks to a legal loophole meant that it was exempt from the 6c tax.
“Tax-free plastic bags flood market as Minister studies situation” was Julian’s response in the form of a story in April last year detailing how manufacturers and importers had found a way around the eco-tax regulations with the plastic bags 1cm smaller than the size liable for taxation.
It was a story that embarrassed the Environment Ministry after all the fanfare about combating the toxic plastic ending up in our waste stream through new taxes, prompting yet another change in the legal notice regulating eco tax.
That was Julian, a fine observer of details that one may initially dismiss as trivial but that when pursued further would expose scoops and scandals, dubious connections and resignation matters.
One such resignation, in a country that is totally alien to the idea, came when Julian revealed that MEPA board member Ronald Azzopardi was shot at by his former partner Giosue Gauci – the father of a director of the largest supermarket chain in Malta, Price Club, before it left its suppliers short by some Lm8 million. Azzopardi was also related by marriage to a man who regularly submits planning applications for large projects to MEPA.
Following the court case and investigating the two men’s business involvements, Julian found that Azzopardi was co-owner of Sovereign Hotels with Gauci – a company that faced 26 new court cases over four years. He had also at least Lm360,000 in unpaid loans.
The revelations had led Environment Minister George Pullicino to “gather information about him”, leading eventually to the first and only MEPA member to resign following investigative stories in the press.
So intrepid was Julian’s scrutiny of the environment ministry’s actions, that minister George Pullicino always refused to be interviewed by him.
Julian’s story of epic proportions was undoubtedly the Price Club saga – a story totally untouched by the rest of the media but examined in every detail in Julian’s investigations.
In his uncovering of court documents totally ignored by court reporters and other media, Julian had revealed how the owners of the defunct supermarket chain managed to usurp massive funds from a company destined to face bankruptcy, diverting the funds into their own personal channels and fabricating stock figures and accounts. Despite sales of Lm22 million the Price Club owners drove the company into failure, leaving their suppliers short of millions of liri, and 400 employees jobless, in a scandal that echoed the Parmalat, Enron and Worldcom fiascos.
Back in 2003, Julian exposed the government’s gross misjudgement in awarding the hospital incinerator tender to an American company that he found out was implicated in fraud.
The tender was meant for new equipment that would have replaced the St Luke’s Hospital incinerator that has been polluting Pietà, Msida and Gwardamangia with black soot for ages, but awarding it to Serrebico Medical Supplies meant the project would never take off the ground. Despite the Health Ministry’s denial, time proved Julian right. The incinerator is still spewing out black fumes.
Another story picked up by Julian was the incredible welfare abuse by the man who bought Fort Chambray for some Lm112 million. Gozitan lawyer Michael Caruana, known as ‘il-Billy’, who bought the historical fort and property speculation goldmine had received children’s allowance but Investments Minister Austin Gatt, who was responsible for selling the land, found the information “of no relevance” to the deal.
As a committed environmentalist, Julian never owned or drove a car, so it was with even greater surprise that he found out that MEPA Chairman Andrew Calleja, who had pontificated to his subordinates to “lead by example on car free day” in September 2004, had actually travelled to work by car on his own on the day he was meant to show everyone he was using public transport.
“We at MEPA lead by example,” Calleja had written to MEPA staff in a memo revealed by Julian. “I would therefore like to urge you all to take a step in favour of the environment… by using public transport or if you have to use a car, to use a car pool.”
When asked why he did not follow his own recommendation Calleja told Julian: “The reasons are personal and not in the public interest,” but failed to elaborate on or justify his decision.
And it was Julian who realised that defunct radio station Voice of the Mediterranean was about to get EUR300,000 from Brussels, declared openly by Culture Minister Francis Zammit Dimech in a press conference in which none of the present journalists even batted an eyelid, despite the fact that the station had been closed down for good.
And Julian also exposed to all the fact that all ministers, parliamentary secretaries and top civil servants benefited and continue to benefit personally from Air Malta’s frequent flyer scheme to fly for free on personal holidays even though the points they accumulate come from flight tickets paid by public finances.
“Several civil servants travel up to twenty times a year as part of their job, sometimes paid for by taxpayers money and sometimes paid for by the EU but always on government related work,” Julian wrote. “When they fly with Air Malta they gain frequent flyer points in Air Malta’s Flypass scheme which they then use for their personal holidays. MaltaToday is informed that in some instances the points are passed on to the families of the civil servants.”
When he pressed for answers, the government remained tight-lipped about the free travel of public officers, and Air Malta limited itself to claiming it was “not ethical” to comment.
Julian’s stories remain an example of resolute and diligent scrutiny of public figures across the board. Faced as we are with ever new environmental disasters, unfeasible golf courses, unaccountable public officers and shady business dealing, his demise is really the loss of a veritable watchdog and an incorruptible reference point.
kschembri@mediatoday.com.mt
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