EXCLUSIVE | MaltaToday publishes new emails in connection with oil scandal

Emails published in MaltaToday on Sunday show George Farrugia at the receiving end of sensitive information from within the Malta Resources Authority

Pardoned oil trader George Farrugia
Pardoned oil trader George Farrugia

Updated at 11.20am with new comments

MaltaToday on Sunday is publishing exclusive new emails revealing how pardoned oil trader George Farrugia was at the receiving end of sensitive information from within the Malta Resources Authority.

The damning emails, which can be viewed and read in the print edition, are from Godwin Sant – formerly head of energy regulation at the Malta Resources Authority – and are sent or copied to Farrugia, divulging sensitive information that included the minutes of an MRA internal meeting and a draft law.

Godwin Sant, MaltaToday has discovered, is on police bail and has already been interrogated on two occasions for 48 hours by the police.

Reacting to these latest revelations, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat told the Labour's general conference that what went on was "incredibly worrying".

"What was revealed today, where a person sent George Farrugia a draft law before sending it to the minister, is incredibly worrying. Beyond the presidential pardon and the oil scandal, this shows long years of excess confidentiality under the previous administration. Our country's institutions must be held accountable. There are huge issues of political responsibility that must be shouldered after the investigations have been concluded. 

"We can't brush off these things as having come from a previous administration. It's unacceptable for a person working in the government to have his primary loyalty to a contractor, rather than the country."

Muscat said his government's appointment of former PN minister Michael Falzon on the oil procurement committee was to send "the message that the way things work in this country have changed once and for all".

Read more in MaltaToday