Casino tender board member rejects ‘conflict of interest’ claims

One of the people whose presence on a board that was set up to evaluate casino licence bidders allegedly prompted Economy Minister Chris Cardona to dismiss that same board has rejected claims that he had a conflict of interest.

Following the board’s dismissal, the casino tender was awarded to Eden Leisure Ltd, despite their financial offer of €1.25 million being around €3 million lower than that of Dragonara Gaming, who finished second. The issue is now in court, with Dragonara claiming that the government had agreed to award the tender to Eden at the very start of the tender process.

A government report revealed to the Malta Independent shows that there were three potential conflicts of interest within that board. One of them was Kevin James Fenech, a managing director of FENCI Consulting Ltd- a business consultancy firm that gives strategic advice to the Malta International Airport. The reason for his potential conflict of interest was that the Bianchi family is both a major shareholder of Dragonara and a minor shareholder of the MIA.

“I cannot comment on the supposed report which looked into the alleged conflicts of interest since I have never seen such a report, nor was I aware of its existence,” Fenech said. “As far as I am concerned, and at this stage, this report, if it exists does not concern me. I can confirm that neither I nor FENCI has ever had, as clients, either of the two short-listed bidders not their shareholders thereof.”

Fenech added that the Ministry for the Economy has confirmed with him that they have never revealed which of the people forming part of the evaluation sub-committee had a potential or even an actual conflict of interest.

Dragonara have rejected the reasons behind Fenech’s conflict of interest as “the lamest of smoke screens”.

“The Bianchi family members are in the same position as the other 6,500 shareholders of the MIA and have no entitlement to its management,” Dragonara said in a statement. “Ironically, the government itself holds 20% of the shareholding of MIA and has a guaranteed seat on the board. This makes Chris Cardona’s assertion of conflict of interest on the part of the Bianchi family a joke in bad taste, were it not such a serious manner.”

Cardona said in parliament earlier this month that he had ordered the dissolution of the committee because “there was a conflict of interest, where one of the committee members or his company had provided consultancy services to one of the bidders in the tender process”.

“There were other reasons [why I ordered the dissolution] but this was one of the more substantial ones,” Cardona said. “I will stop by saying that.”

The government ‘conflict of interest’ report had gone on to suggest that a second board member, Jesmond Pace, could have had a conflict of interest because he had formed part of the Lotteries and Gaming Authority board back when the Dragonara Casino was awarded a 10-year licence in 2010. The report also named Kevin James Fenech’s wife and business partner Roberta Fenech Gauci who, despite not sitting on the dismissed committee, had formed part of the same LGA board that Pace had.