Update 3 | Former Enemalta financial controller placed under bill of indictment

Enemalta's former financial officer has been placed under a bill indictment, after he was charged with corruption in connection kickbacks he is alleged to have received by an oil trader for the supply of oil to Enemalta.

Tarcisio Mifsud, 68 of Zebbug, is accused of having taken commissions on oil contracts awarded  to French oil company Total, and sharing the monies with Enemalta's former petroleum chief Alfred Mallia, who is also accused of corruption.

Also accused on similar charges of corruption are former Enemalta chairman Tancred Tabone, former MOBC chief Frank Sammut, and the directors of Island Bunker Oils, Francis Portelli and Anthony Cassar.

They are accused of having taken commissions for the supply of oil from Total and Trafigura through the offices of local agent George Farrugia, who has turned State's evidence after he was granted a presidential pardon.

Mifsud joined Enemalta in 1974 and was appointed financial controlled in 1984, retiring in February 2004.

It transpires that all the minutes of meetings for 2001 of the Enemalta board were missing, Enemalta human resources manager Anthony Bonello told a court today.

Lawyers Anna Mallia and Edward Gatt are representing Mifsud.

Magistrate Claire Stafrace Zammit was informed this morning that minutes pertaining to board meetings held at Enemalta during 2001, are missing and cannot be found, while others related to meetings held in 2002, also remain missing.

This was confirmed this morning by Anthony Bonello, Head Corporate Services at Enemalta who was summoned to give evidence in the compilation of evidence against Mifsud. Mifsud will now face a trial by jury.

Taking the witness stand, Bonello said that his research at Enemalta for the minutes requested by the prosecution have so far proved futile.

Antoine Galea, executive head finance at Enemalta meanwhile presented the court with contract details of oil procurements made by Enemalta from Total and Elf, and details related to the quantities of fuel owned by Total which were stored at Has-Saptan.

Among the documentation presented, Bonello deposited invoices and documents related to all the contracts awarded to Total and Elf by Enemalta, with the first contract awarded on 18 August 1999, for gasoil which lasted until 25 August of the same year for 20,000 metric tonnes.

There were many other procurement contracts which were awarded to Elf which was eventually bought by Total, and then converted into new names as Totalfina and Totsa.

Case against Mifsud

Earlier this month, prosecutors told the Court that investigations into the oil procurement scandal, revealed how Enemalta's petroleum division chief Alfred Mallia took commissions on oil tenders awarded to French oil company Total and split the kickbacks with Tarcisio Mifsud, the former financial controller.

Mallia, who besides controlling the petroleum division also sat on the oil procurement committee, and Tarcisio Mifsud are two of seven men facing corruption charges and both are pleading not guilty to corruption between 1998 and 2003.

Police Inspector Angelo Gafà, heading the prosecution, how State witness George Farrugia, once the local agent of French oil giant Total, told police that he used to give Mallia a commission from what he legitimately received as commissions for sales to Enemalta.

Farrugia also said that the relationship with Mallia had started in relation to the storage of oil at Enemalta's facilities in Ħas-Saptan and, before 1999, Farrugia had reached an agreement with Total in London to engage in talks for a storage agreement. Mallia helped facilitate this but asked for commissions.

Farrugia was paid US16c per tonne from Total and shared a portion of this with Mallia.

Corruption

The relationship however changed when, in 1999, a strike by port workers left Enemalta's oil reserves running low.

To address that problem, Enemalta - through a direct order - decided to tap into 20,000 tonnes of gasoil that Total had stored at Ħas-Saptan.

Mallia had made direct contact with the company but Farrugia insisted that the sale should go through him since he was the local agent. But Mallia insisted he should get a cut from the deal, telling Farrugia: "Take care of me as I am not alone."

The price was higher than usual and Farrugia got a commission of US$1.50c per tonne (usually US$1 was paid on sale of oil) and passed on a third to Mallia, who earned US$10,000 that day. From then on, Farrugia started bidding for Enemalta oil tenders, being successful, according to his own estimate, in about two-thirds of them.

Farrugia did not know however that there was another person involved. However, in 2000, he visited Mallia in hospital following a serious traffic accident and was told that Tarcisio Mifsud wanted to speak to him.

Mifsud challenged

Farrugia said that he met Mifsud, the former chief financial officer who told him that he wanted "what Alfred Mallia used to get". From then on, he started paying Mifsud after every consignment.

Farrugia added that the commissions he used to pay were not to win the tenders but simply to be eligible to win tenders as he had a "right" to. However, it also transpired that Mallia had also occasionally showed Farrugia the offers of other suppliers, earning him the charge of trading in influence, besides corruption.

One day, Mifsud allegedly called Farrugia and asked to him to visit him at his office. "I did one plus one and put Lm3,000 (€6,970) in an envelope."

Mifsud pocketed the money but told him that he would not win a particular tender. "It's better like that so it won't be obvious," he was told.

When arrested last Februrary 26, Mifsud denied ever receiving any money from Farrugia, or even knowing Farrugia. The police said that he made a scene during the interrogations.

Farrugia however, insisted on his allegations and listed the times he met Mifsud, including during a wedding reception.

"How can you not recognise me after the many times I came to your office to give you money," Farrugia told Mr Mifsud during the confrontation, Inspector Angelo Gafà told the court of how things evolved during the interrogations.