Claudio Grech denies meeting oil trader whilst working with former minister

The first time that Nationalist MP Claudio Grech met oil trader George Farrugia was in 2012, when the MP decided to run for the 2013 general election on a PN ticket.

“If I met him [Farrugia] before 2012 then it definitely would have been something not worth recalling,” Grech told the Public Accounts Committee this evening.

“The [2012] meeting was requested by Farrugia himself and he wanted to talk about the situation with his brothers.”

The discussion, he added, was “on general terms”.

Grech served as head of secretariat to former infrastructure minister Austin Gatt. He was first approached by Gatt in 1999, to serve as policy coordinator. Grech would later become ‘chief of staff’ (head of secretariat) until 2008 when he left to become chief executive of Smart City. He also remained as adviser – free of charge – to Gatt on IT matters.

During Grech’s own political campaign, Gatt had done a testimonial. The MP appeared to be irked when asked whether Grech had ‘replaced’ Gatt on the first district.

In 2010, Grech launched his own advisory firm, Momentum.

The MP said he didn’t know all of the Farrugia brothers individually, but had a short encounter with him when he decided to contest the general election.

“Before the reports in the media, I had no idea of his operations,” he said.

Grech told the MPs that the meeting with Farrugia was “simply about his family”. “At no point did he talk to me about issues related to work,” he said.

Later, in reply to other questions, Grech said he had never communicated with Farrugia on work-related matters and he was never present to any technical meetings.

Asked whether Farrugia had ever requested a meeting with him or with Gatt, through him, Grech said he didn’t think so. “I’m almost 100% certain it’s a ‘no’,” he said.

He denied Farrugia had ever communicated with him over the privatization of fuel. Grech also said that he was more familiar with Farrugia’s brother, Ray Farrugia.

As part of Gatt’s team, Grech also used to help out with the political campaigning. In 2003, he used to help with the organization of activities but he “wasn’t the campaign manager or the hand”. In 2008, his participation was “less interactive and more on generic advice on strategy”. He also denied receiving or collecting any donations for Gatt’s electoral campaign.

Pressed over the use of Valentine Hall, Grech said he never facilitated the use of the hall for Gatt’s campaign. “As far as I know, the activity was held in 2008 and I wasn’t aware of the situation of the Farrugia brothers. But I didn’t facilitate any use of halls and I didn’t coordinate any activities,” he said.

Grech was also asked about his garage in Valletta and how the address appeared as his official residence. While questioning the relevance of the question, Grech said it was “a simple matter” whereby the garage address was his address.

He then went on to list a number of candidates elected on a Labour ticket – José Herrra, Luciano Busuttil, Chris Cardona and Deo Debattista – whose address was not their residence’s.

The meeting started off with Grech reading off a nine-page statement during which he stated that, by 2008, he had left Gatt’s secretariat.

The Public Accounts Committee is still scrutinizing the report by the Auditor General on Enemalta’s fuel procurement between 2008 and 2013.

Grech said that he did not hold any public positions with Enemalta, between 2008 and 2013.

In his statement, Grech explained that he had been part of a process to reform the works of government entities, including Enemalta. He focused on his administrative role between 2003 and 2008, the portfolio of government entities in 2003, a reform in Enemalta and a procurement policy for entities.

The Enemalta reform, he said, was perhaps the most complicated due to losses which were being registered year after year.

The reform tried to push a culture change in favour of efficiency, which included the transformation of those at the helm of the corporation. Enemalta had started by engaging new people in its top management, including Ray Attard as Chief Executive, Pippo Pandolfino as chief financial officer and now Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi who was chief information officer.

“The engagement of these three people brought with it a movement of unprecedented change and a radical change in culture in Enemalta,” Grech told the MPs.