Waiting for Pawlu

I saw Paul Borg Olivier on Thursday night. I tried to attract his attention, but he did all he could to look the other way. I can understand him. He was too busy spending all his time giggling and joking with a woman dressed in vomit orange who looked like some character from the Addam's Family.

Good for him.

It is refreshing to know that he prefers the company of people who gossip and emit bile.

On Friday, Nikki Dimech (in court and under oath), stated that Paul Borg Olivier had phoned him up to favour one contractor from another. PBO was not present. I'm sure he was too busy to waste any time on the frivolous libel he started in the first place.

The contractor, according to Dimech was then represented by Vince Farrugia, the GRTU chief, former PN Candidate and in the good old days an apologist of the Labour Party and the right hand of Joe Grima.

Those of you who are old enough will remember that Vince Farrugia was not only a raging bull and Labourite, but someone whom the Nationalists loved to hate.

But time passes, and carob trees get chopped and high rise buildings suddenly appear, and everyone sort of forgets.

The rest, of course, is history.

In our world we call these people - a pinnur!

But never mind. Being a pinnur appears to be the 'in thing'.

Nikki Dimech's evidence led to a number of phone calls from former members of the council, who had quite a lot to recount.

They recalled the telephone calls they received themselves.

But later on, on another 'special' occasion.

The reality check about this evidence - be it true or false - is not whether this evidence is circumstantial or simply a matter of court declarations, but rather whether it would make a difference if the characters were reversed.
Let us for one minute imagine a slightly different scenario. For example, imagine if the person giving evidence was former disgraced PL mayor Darren Marmara of Fgura, and that he said in court that deputy leader Toni Abela had called on him to favour one contractor over another.

There is little doubt in my mind that the whole media circus would be out against Abela.

Natalino Fenech's TVM would be having a field day; Ivan Camilleri - the man the Times asked to come back and stay put in Malta  - would be having a whale of a time and of course NET TV would be using up all its energy to prove what a rotten party Labour is.
Not to mention the Queen of Bile herself and of course, the pro-tobacco lawyer Andrew Borg Cardona, who spends all his time peeping over people's backs to have a look at MaltaToday.

But as things stand, the media is not all interested in treating stories in the same way.  Or shall we say people are treated according to their political colouring.

In Maltese we have a wonderful saying: 'Ħoll xagħrek u ġġib iż-żejt'. It is a perfect saying to describe what would happen if the person being accused was not Pawlu Borg Olivier.

Well, I am waiting Pawlu. Because you see, when you take on newspapers and their editors, do not expect to be treated with kid gloves.  

***

The two buzz words which seem to have taken over our lives are 'unambiguous' and 'circumstantial'. Two words which, I'm afraid, will continue to haunt John Dalli for the rest of his life.

The pungent but very good interview by Reno Bugeja on TVM with John Dalli allowed Dalli to fire most of his firepower at Rita Schembri, the newly appointed Permanent Secretary of one of the government's least known units.

It is housed next to the Ministry of Finance, away from the madding crowd. It has a staff complement of 25 people and they are supposed to vet anything from internal audit to screening EU structural funds. The head - or, shall I say the permanent secretary at AFCO, the internal audit office in Malta - is Rita Schembri.

Schembri is not very much loved in the civil service. This may be because she is very efficient and a good manager. There could be other reasons, of course.

But the big question being put forward by many people in the civil service is: how did this person rise so fast in such a short time?

I guess she must be really good. A supernatural natural, just like Richard.

What's more interesting is that this department is responsible for vetting so many EU projects and I would like to sit down to see how efficiently Rita Schembri has looked at these projects.

Perhaps I could put forward a set of questions... she could consult with Godwin Grima if she wishes.

How many EU-funded projects in Malta have been discovered to have made fraudulent gains?

And was there a follow-up?

How many investigations have been followed with the EU or OLAF?

Is Rita Schembri happy with the investigators' report?

In the past, has Rita Schembri ever discussed any of the investigations with former ambassador Richard Cachia Caruana?

Did anyone tell her that her role in the supervisory board of OLAF is a conflict of interest?

***

One interesting observation about the OLAF report or public statement omits is the description of Silvio Zammit.

Why does no one, especially The Times refer to Silvio Zammit as the former deputy Mayor of Sliema from the Nationalist (ruling) party?

Strange but true... but Silvio Zammit is described as a 'Maltese entrepreneur' not as the deputy Mayor.

Now, that could be an honest omission.

As a friend from the Office of the Prime Minister informed me that these kind of things only happen if you have an investigator from OLAF who is a moron or else an investigator from Malta who knows the political game.
Dalli yesterday said that Rita Schembri was in charge of the interrogation. My sources confirm that Schembri interrogated Silvio Zammit.

If that is the case, then I do not believe in coincidences.

But the one thing that I cannot quite fathom is that Silvio Zammit now, all of a sudden, becomes a liability. I never knew the man, but if my memory does not fail me, he was a canvasser to Michael Refalo and later to Michael Frendo and then in 2008 for John Dalli. It was okay to be a canvasser to other politicians, but you see not to Johnnie.

Until this year, Silvio was in the good books of the party, in spite of the fact that he was not exactly a cherubic character. Today all the PN activists talk of Silvio 'tal-hot dogs', but before this happened he was one of them!
Indeed, Pawlu and Lawrence pushed him to go for the council.

Somehow when the shit hit the fan, or better still when the shit hits the fan and it is all about John Dalli expect the greatest form of collateral damage.

As things stand it is highly unlikely that Dalli will not fight this one.

In the past 20 years, he fought every allegation in court and believe it or not he won 13 libels against many of these allegations.

If it is proven that he was not aware (OLAF are stating that he did nothing illegal) then he may return to the political scene with a vengeance.

I fear that Barroso has more to fear than Gonzi in this. Dalli had this to say at the end of the programme with Reno Bugeja. "Even in 2004, the case was declared closed. Barroso is currently saying the same thing, that the case is closed. I can assure him that the case is not closed."

***

One small word about Rate the Minister. Mario de Marco, Joe Cassar and Dolores Cristina should not be to excited that they find themselves on top of this survey.  It is natural that those ministers who take decisions (such as Austin Gatt) will never be top of the pops. Decision-making is a rare vocation.

Mario de Marco may have the charisma and 'imagery' qualifications for leader but he is renowned for his procrastination and his ability not to take a decision.

Such is life in politics.