Sant showed Farrugia draft law before passing it on to minister

Godwin Sant is described by those who know him well as a man of a few words, an introvert who kept a low profile.

Educated by the Jesuits, he grew up sharing the same school in the same year as the young Tonio Fenech, Michael Fenech Adami and Paul Borg Olivier. A mere coincidence, one that shows how small Malta is. At school he was known as the son of a certain Alfred C. Sant, the songwriter, who coined the song with its familiar chorus: “il-Merill tweet, tweet, il-Merill tweet, tweet.”

He was respected as an engineer and was one of the most senior officials at the Malta Resources Authority. His role was crucial in serving as a regulator and drawing up and outlining legislation, and ensuring that strict standards were adhered to by players in the energy sector.  

Godwin Sant was also privy to highly sensitive information, which he shared at will with pardoned oil trader George Farrugia. There were many occasions when he was seen in the company of George Farrugia who, unknown to many people, had numerous business interests, including the supply of fuel station technology, with an undisputed market of over 80 such outlets.

The regulator for these petrol stations was unsurprisingly Godwin Sant. Fuel pumps are profitable businesses and George Farrugia made it amply clear that he was king of the business and that no one would enter his lucrative market.    

In 2009, resources minister George Pullicino was aware that the fuel stations needed to align themselves to European Union directives. Godwin Sant was tasked with overseeing this change.  

Not only did he organise and coordinate meetings with the relevant authorities, but he made it a point to pass on sensitive information to George Farrugia, and also to advise George Farrugia so he would be best able to provide the service needed for these important and very expensive changes.

Godwin Sant was for George Farrugia a very important player and Farrugia, whose wife Cathy had worked for eight years as one of two secretaries on the same floor as Lawrence Gonzi at Mizzi House, made sure not to mention his name to the police during interrogation – and more importantly to the Public Accounts Committee.

Draft legislation sent to Farrugia

On 20 February, 2009, a meeting was held at the MRA energy directorate, when present for the meeting were Maurizo Busuttil from the MRA, and Mark Scerri and Michael Seychell for the Malta Environment and Planning Authority.

The subject was the proposed legal notice on the control of volatile organic compound emissions (storage and distribution of petrol from terminal to service stations) regulations.  The proposals were earmarked for the Office of the Prime Minister.

Godwin Sant was kind enough to send the minutes to George Farrugia. The information gave useful and crucial information on how the dispensers would have to be upgraded, and on the incorporation of recovery of gases, upgrade of pipework and removal and re-instatement of forecourt areas.

The minutes of the meeting at the Malta Resources Authority on the changes needed for fuel stations

The minutes of the meeting at the Malta Resources Authority on the changes needed for fuel stations

The intelligence passed on to George Farrugia was further incredibly augmented by a copy of the draft legislation. Godwin Sant sent out the attachments from his gmail account with the wording: “… as agreed please see the attached for your better understanding of the subject.”

George Farrugia lost no time at all. He immediately relayed the information to his suppliers, who provided him with a variety of options.

Godwin Sant’s usefulness had no bounds. He would supplement George Farrugia’s craving for sealing contracts and business deals by proposing a line of action. He would advise whom to contact and how to make the contact.

Farrugia was eyeing tenders for landfills

In an email from Godwin Sant to George Farrugia, Sant writes: “George, please refer to   CEO Vince Magri [email protected] and personal technical assistant [email protected] and also copy in my chairman’s address as follows [email protected]. Regards, Godwin.”

It remained unclear on how many occasions the two men travelled together, but they appear to have done so and to have even met foreign companies to make presentations. As was the case after a presentation to a subsidiary of oil company Total in which the director of the photovoltaic department thanks both Sant and Farrugia.

Furthermore, Godwin Sant writes in an email to Farrugia telling him that the overall report (related to the presentation to Total) would be forwarded to the ministry and that he would keep him in the loop.

On another occasion, this time unrelated to tenders but related to privatisation, Sant sends Farrugia a cutting from a newspaper with the title: ‘Advanced negotiations in privatisation of petroleum distribution’. The subject of the email is “eeeeemmmm….”  denoting that the two men had already communicated to each other on the subject.

Sant pushes Pandolfino to finalise contract

Last Sunday, the publication of the email showing that Godwin Sant was the recipient of football tickets courtesy of Trafigura through George Farrugia, led to Sant’s arrest.

It also led to the pronouncement by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat that if it were proven that George Farrugia had lied to the police, he would consider withdrawing the presidential pardon Farrugia had been given on condition that he would tell all he knew. 

Godwin Sant had the very important role of ensuring that the fuel sold to Enemalta fell within the criteria established in tenders.   

Again Sant was privy to information and to data collected that would establish whether an oil supplier represented by George Farrugia would have the right specifications. An oil shipment with the wrong specifications would mean hundreds of thousands in extra costs to ensure proper adherence. 

It went further than that. In another set of new emails, Godwin Sant put pressure on Pippo Pandolfino, the chief financial officer at Enemalta, to finalise and send the Totsa oil company contract for fuel oil and inland fuel. At the same time he is sending a blind copy of the correspondence to George Farrugia – the Totsa agent. Obviously, closure of the contractual agreement with Totsa would have left Farrugia with more commissions.

The email sent as a blind copy to George Farrugia in which Godwin Sant is calling on Pippo Pandolfino to send formal contract of George Farrugia’s clients Totsa

The police have been tight-lipped about whether they had made any inroads with Godwin Sant. Apart from interrogating Sant last week, the police also interrogated George Farrugia, after his abrupt departure form Malta last Sunday with his lawyer Siegfried Borg Cole.  

Presidential pardon in the balance

If former energy regulator Godwin Sant is arraigned, there is little doubt that the presidential pardon that former Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi decided to grant, together with his Cabinet in February 2013, may very well be in the balance. It may also serve to shed more light on the background to the pardon, and whether the grant was motivated by other reasons.

Lawrence Gonzi has previously vehemently denied that he knew Cathy Farrugia, but then changed tack when faced with a thread of emails indicating some degree of familiarity.

He has claimed that he did not know George Farrugia or that he recalled meeting him – even though there was a meeting with him on a privatisation issue in Castille, together with a representative for anew project by the name of Horizon Terminals.

This was confirmed by businessman Beppe Hili, who told MaltaToday when contacted that he had been present for a meeting with the Prime Minister, and that the meeting was attended and organised by George Farrugia.

George Farrugia was a very well-known PN follower and a well-known face to many of the former Nationalist ministers. The former Prime Minister also knew George’s wife since she was one of two secretaries on the same floor as Gonzi – formerly chairman of the Mizzi Organisation – at Mizzi House. They effectively worked together for over eight years, during which Cathy Farrugia also served on a number of occasions as secretary to the board when Gonzi was company secretary.

In fact familiarity may be the perfect word, as an email exchanged between Lawrence Gonzi and Cathy Farrugia in 2004 appears to confirm:  “Dear Cathy and Family, Thank you for your message and for the photos.  Give my best regards to everyone.  Lawrence Gonzi.”

The emails from Cathy Farrugia to Lawrence Gonzi in 2004

But in last Friday’s public accounts committee hearing, no one asked the former Prime Minister if the fact that he knew Cathy and her family, when deciding on the presidential pardon, had any bearing on his final decision.