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Karl Schembri and Matthew Vella
Malta Tourism Authority board members were threatened with imprisonment and warned they could have their telephones tapped by the police as part of the investigation into the leak to the press of the chairman’s draft letter to brand consultant Christian Sinding.
Convened last Friday afternoon by lawyer Joe Zammit Maempel, who was appointed by chairman Sam Mifsud to investigate the leak of the letter to admitting failure in the Brand Malta campaign, the board members were told that the police had the power to enquire with telephone companies about their phone calls if they are involved in the investigations.
Requesting a written sworn statement from each one of them declaring that they did not leak the letter, Zammit Maempel also told them that as government-appointed officials, leaking confidential information could lead to fines and imprisonment, adding that the police had the power to search the journalists’ hard disks to trace correspondence.
Shocked by the meeting, board members reported the matter to Tourism Minister Francis Zammit Dimech, who confirmed to MaltaToday that he was approached by a member who expressed his disgust at the way they were treated by Zammit Maempel.
The minister admitted that a board member who spoke to him had the impression that they could have their telephones tapped by the police but declared it would have been impossible for him to authorise any telephone tapping.
“I am not in a position to order any telephone tapping and I dissociate myself completely from any attempt to give the impression that there is this possibility,” Zammit Dimech said. “If you ask me, this matter should be closed as soon as possible and not be left to escalate in this way.”
The minister, who suggested Zammit Maempel to be appointed investigator, said yesterday that the MTA “should now focus on its core mission”.
Contacted yesterday, Zammit Maempel confirmed that he was assigned by the chairman to investigate the leak and that he addressed the board members on Friday afternoon, but denied that the police were involved or that any telephone tapping had been carried out. He added that he was not just investigating board members.
The minister said that according to confidential information that had reached him, the leak did not originate from the MTA board but from the authority’s management, though he later clarified that this could only happen in collusion with a board member. Both the MTA chairman and chief executive David Mifsud were abroad during the Friday meeting.
When contacted, the MTA chairman also said the police were not yet involved in investigations and insisted no telephone tapping was authorised on board members.
“The MTA is investigating the leak, not the police,” Sam Mifsud said. “We have appointed Zammit Maempel to do this for us.”
The chairman said Zammit Maempel had asked to speak to the board members in their absence but would not answer whether he felt the lawyer was intimidating the board with his heavy-handed approach.
“I wasn’t present but I know he did not say they were tapped,” Mifsud added. “He requested them to make an affidavit denying leaking the information. There is no question of tapping or police investigating them at this stage.”
A number of board members informed Zammit Maempel – who warned them they could face serious repercussions if they were caught lying under oath – that they would seek legal advice about the affidavit before signing it, and one even said he would send the bill of the affidavit to the MTA.
Revealed by Maltastar and The Times earlier this month, the leak of the letter is known to have infuriated Sam Mifsud just as he took over as chairman in the midst of the Brand Malta fiasco, prompting him to launch a witch-hunt for the source.
In fact, in the draft letter meant to be sent to Sinding, Mifsud admitted the campaign was a “relative failure” and proposed cutting the consultant’s remuneration of EUR30,000 by half.
“In this way, it is felt that you would be accepting partial responsibility for the campaign’s dismal result,” the letter said.
Although it was never sent to the Norwegian consultant, the chairman’s letter was discussed with MTA board members and it was decided to meet Sinding face to face instead to negotiate an agreement. Eventually they agreed on paying him EUR25,000, after the board learnt that Sinding had already been paid another EUR30,000 under the previous chairman, Romwald Lungaro Mifsud, who engaged him.
Speaking in the wake of the leak, Sam Mifsud had told sister paper Business Today that he would not allow any “more nonsense or breaches” under his chairmanship, stressing that the leak was an unacceptable betrayal of trust.
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