Updated | Gonzi reiterates denial that he knew of fuel procurement allegations in 2011

Education minister Evarist Bartolo has insisted that allegations of corruption tied to fuel procurement by state utility Enemalta, went ignored by former prime minister Lawrence Gonzi in 2011.

Yesterday Gonzi issued a statement, categorically denying having instructed anyone to pass on documents pertaining to oil importer George Farrugia and his business, to the Security Service.

“Bartolo alleged that some time in 2011 I had in hand some documents related to corruption in fuel procurement and that I passed on these documents to the Security Services. I categorically declared that this allegation is false: it is not true that I passed on any such documents to the MSS or that I gave instructions to anyone to do so,” Gonzi said.

In a reaction on his Facebook wall, Bartolo said that Gonzi was attempting to twist his parliamentary speech. “I said that there was an effort to cover up the corruption in fuel procurement. In 2011, a Security Service office passed on documents tied to fuel corruption to Dr Gonzi, who did not want to handle them and told them to take it to the MSS. Instead of being investigated, there was contact made between the MSS and the secretariat of a ministry, and part of these documents were shredded.”

In reply, Gonzi reiterated that “unlike others I don’t play with words” and insisted “neither do I make things up or distort facts to take political advantage or deviate attention.”

Gonzi, who is no longer an MP, has reiterated the same after MaltaToday had already asked him the same question during the 2013 election, on 26 February, specifically about a member of the Malta Security Services who had informed him in the summer of 2011 of the invoices and documents pertaining to oil trader George Farrugia’s activities, himself accused by his family of siphoning some €6 million in commissions on oil imports from family business Powerplan.

MaltaToday had specifically asked Gonzi about the MSS member who informed him of Farrugia’s activities, and of accusations that he had siphoned off his family business’s profits to a hidden company, Aikon Ltd, with related invoices. Gonzi reportedly told the officer to report the allegation to the Commissioner of Police, without taking any further ownership of the matter.

Asked about this in an impromptu question and answer session with the press at the University of Malta, the prime minister did not deny having been informed of the Farrugia invoices: ”I have always insisted publicly, that whenever I had any information, I would always refer it directly to the Commissioner of Police, because it is the duty of all constitutional authorities to take responsibility for such investigations, and they have the power that the law gives them to make these investigations. And that’s what I did as my duty was.

“Any report, whatever it was or wherever it came from, was passed on to the authorities [to investigate],” Gonzi had said.