Court acquits former Gozo minister’s husband in whistleblower unpaid works case

Updated at 11:30am with PN statement

A court has acquitted the husband of former Gozo minister Giovanna Debono, after a whistleblower’s claims were not sufficiently proven in the evidence brought by the proseuction.

Anthony Debono was accused of having used the services of the CMU government works offices he supervised, to carry out private works for constituents, with the whisteblower Joseph Cauchi claiming he had not been paid for the works.

In a 77-page judgment on the case, Magistrate Neville Camilleri observed that the court “could speculate on what might have happened, however these would simply be conjectures not based on concrete evidence… Suspicions that one might have about the accused vanish into absolutely nothing after all the acts of the proceedings are taken into consideration.”

Cauchi had been awarded whistleblower status after the Gozo ministry’s permanent secretary asked that his allegations be investigated by police.

Debono was accused of the misappropriation of public monies by allegedly carrying out works for private constituents using the budget of the Gozo ministry’s construction and maintenance unit. He denied the charges. The prosecution led to the resignation of his wife Giovanna Debono from the PN, though she retained her seat in the House. The Gozo works-for-votes allegations were first published in MaltaToday when whistleblower Joseph Cauchi said he had been left out of pocket when the Nationalist Party was not re-elected, and that works he carried out were left unpaid.

Cauchi told the police he had been engaged by Debono to carry out specific works but that he could not be paid by the CMU or the Gozo ministry since these works were not officially mandated. Cauchi claims he was owed some €50,000 for his work, and that Debono also paid him in cash for some outstanding dues.

Debono’s defence submitted that had Cauchi’s invoices been falsified, as the works did not take place, this would have also required falsified delivery notes, invoices for concrete and stone. “It would have been impossible for the prosecution to find all the documents it did. In the case of a falsification, all these documents would not have been found,” the court said.

The court said it had established that the accused had worked in the same way that the CMU had worked before his time, under Pawlu Lanzon. The CMU’s remit was vast, carrying out various construction and maintenance works all over Gozo, contracting such workers as Joseph Cauchi.

The court concluded that evidence given by whistleblower Joseph Cauchi did not check out to the level required by law to find guilt in the accused. Although the defence had raised questions as to the veracity of Cauchi’s testimony when he said he hadn’t yet been paid for works, which according to him had been done privately, the court noted that it did not need to investigate whether he had been paid or not due to the fact that it had to carefully examine all the accusations brought against the accused in this “voluminous file”.

The magistrate said that the case could have been better investigated by the police and that this might have avoided the accused being arraigned in court to face serious criminal charges.

While it was true that the court could have found guilt on the strength of just one witness’ evidence, despite the fact that Cauchi was given whistleblower status, this didn’t mean that everything he said was necessarily true.

The court said the prosecution should have analysed whether Cauchi’s version was corroborated by other witnesses, such as employees who worked in the properties in question. This could have led to a different conclusion, said the magistrate.

The court said guilt had not been sufficiently proven in any of the charges brought against the man and cleared him, ordering the prosecution to bear all the costs of the case.

PN welcomes acquittal: ‘Truth has prevailed’

The Nationalist Party has welcomed the criminal court’s acquittal of former minister Giovanna Debono’s husband, insisting the truth has prevailed.

“Nobody is above the law, especially people who would have given a service to the people but today the truth has prevailed and justice has started being served with this family,” the PN said.

Debono’s husband, Anthony Debono, was accused of having used the services of the CMU government works offices he supervised, to carry out private works for constituents when his wife was minister for Gozo. Whisteblower Joseph Cauchi had claimed he had not been paid for the works.

The court said guilt had not been sufficiently proven in any of the charges brought against Debono and cleared him, ordering the prosecution to bear all the costs of the case.

“The PN welcomes the court’s ruling and notes that the accusations were based on conjecture that caused useless suffering to the Debono family after they ended up unjustly in court for their long public service,” the PN said in a statement on Wednesday.

The party added that the court’s decision put paid to the PL’s accusations to tarnish Giovanna Debono.

“Despite the Labour Party’s partisan attempts, no politician from the PN has the shadow of corruption hanging over them,” the PN said, adding that the PL could not say the same following recent developments.