The great altruists

It must have been 24 years ago. I recall writing an article about Eddie Fenech Adami, then Prime Minister.

At the time I wrote my opinions in Maltese. I had described the Prime Minister as an actor. It was my reaction to his wrong stand on electoral reform. If there was a stark failure in Eddie Fenech Adami’s long reign as Prime Minister, it was his lack of resolve in addressing the great deficit in our electoral system.

That little comment led to a backlash from the Nationalist media, then led by a band of young journalists at Radio 101.  

One of them was Simon Busuttil, today leader of the PN, under the uncompromising guidance of Radio 101’s chief.

That chief was Lou Bondì. Yes, the same conceited Bondì who would, when the time came, forget all about his crusade against Labour and become a highly well-paid consultant to Labour’s prime minister.

But that is beside the point.

Fast forward to today, and last Wednesday I lashed out at former Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, accusing him of being dishonest. That opinion in the Wednesday edition came about after Gonzi appeared again before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which was discussing the oil scandal.

There is little doubt that when it comes to elocution and fighting spirit, Gonzi has not lost any whit of either. But when it comes to being precise and faithful, he was way off the mark.

Repeating the same old story is becoming incredibly boring.  

But there is little doubt that Lawrence Gonzi did know Cathy Farrugia – wife of oil trader George Farrugia – and he did so for over eight years, both working for the same employer.

My question is whether this friendship had any bearing on the pardon. Did it influence the decision to grant the presidential pardon to husband George, to tell all about the oil scandal at energy corporation Enemalta?

Gonzi’s gladiators still argue that George Farrugia’s pardon was crucial in nailing the corrupt dudes. But that statement is very wrong. Farrugia contributed nothing to nail the big boys.

Farrugia’s testimony abruptly did not go beyond anything that happened after 2005 – it does not throw any light on anything that happened post-2005.

But the facts show that after 2005 George, with the help of Cathy, continued to issue invoices linked to illegal trading and kickbacks.

That business went on way after Tancred Tabone had left Enemalta. Cathy Farrugia continued to issue invoices and she did this without respite. George Farrugia, at the time – and I refer specifically to election year 2008 – made it a point to hover around two particular ministers.

These two ministers were not awarded recognition by a simple pat on the shoulder. They were given material help for their election campaign.

These details still have to come out.

At present, there is little evidence that the ministers benefitted from the kickbacks orchestrated by George Farrugia. But they did receive aid from Farrugia and there is ample evidence to prove this. The Public Accounts Committee, originally appointed by the Nationalist government, is serving to piece this amazing scandal together and serving the Labour government well.  

The facts that have not yet surfaced relate to George Farrugia’s behaviour in other business spheres. Activities which show that Farrugia applied his habit of buying favours well after 2005 and beyond Enemalta. And that Godwin Sant at MRA is not the only example.

When these details are finally revealed and put under the public gaze they will show how Farrugia bulldozed his way through the procurement procedures by currying favour.

To continue believing that Farrugia was forced into offering kickbacks is simply taking things too far. Farrugia was a willing player in creating the right conditions for greasing those officials or public figures he depended on for leverage. Farrugia fed off a culture that relied completely on kickbacks and he thrived on this understanding with the people who orbited around him. He was at the centre of the malaise, not the other way round, he was to the corruption what the sun is to earth. He fed it.

When, in August 2012, five months before the story was published in MaltaToday, a security officer, a constable, passed on to Lawrence Gonzi papers laying out in black and white Farrugia’s kickback history, an opportunity was lost.

Those papers were forwarded to the Prime Minister by the Farrugia (George’s) brothers, but Gonzi simply asked the constable to pass them on to his superior. I don’t know if Gonzi shrugged in doing so.

What happened next is shameful, if not scandalous – because Gonzi and now Busuttil are trying to make us believe that the 'ill-timed' (in their words) oil scandal was the biggest single reason for the downfall of their government in March 2013. Everyone knows this was not the case. I would admit that the scandal did not help at all, but there are also an abundance of other highly valid reasons for the Gonzi government’s demise.

However it also beckons one to query whether Gonzi – when he first heard of the allegations by the Farrugia brothers in August 2012 (through his security detail) – could have possibly foretold the wide-ranging implications of the George Farrugia kickbacks.

Here again a lot of questions remain unanswered.

In the PAC Gonzi contradicted himself in various instances and could not really come out with a clear answer of what really went on then.

In February 2013, the Maltese police, under Commissioner John Rizzo, discovered a number of cheques which were signed by both George Farrugia and one of the brothers.

The police arrived at their own conclusion – that they (the brothers) were technically party to the bribery orchestrated by George, who was then given the presidential pardon.

I do not believe that is so.

The question no one has asked Lawrence Gonzi is why the brothers were not taken to court before the election.

And the answer to that is very simple.

The Farrugia brothers were hard core Nationalists who supported the Nationalists financially and materially. I know of three former ministers who were supported by the brothers. And the Nationalist Party owed the brothers over €300,000, and still owed them until the time of going to print.

But all this strangely seems to have no significance for PN leader Simon Busuttil, who was the first to raise his hand, so to say, to express support for Gonzi’s stand.

It was a stand which I described as ‘dishonest’.

Busuttil put his head above the parapet and continued to repeat, and ask, why the Farrugia brothers had not been arraigned. Not only. He claimed the brothers had not been arraigned because of Manwel Mallia, who was not long ago a legal consultant to the Farrugia group of companies, and then became Home Affairs Minister.

Then again, no one seems to have mentioned that in January of the same year, one of Simon Busuttil’s clients, Shell Malta, was awarded five million euros in compensation by the PN cabinet.  

It was an extraordinary decision.

Yes, Shell Malta was awarded five million euros tax free, some four days before the oil scandal hit the public in the eye.

The reason for this was based on the understanding that Shell had lost out to a nasty and unfair fuel procurement system.

Because the Malta Resources Authority (at the time Godwin Sant – another of those in George Farrugia’s orbit – was director of energy policy) had decreed that Shell Malta had been unfairly treated when it came to fuel tendering decisions.

Simon Busuttil has denied ever receiving any commission for this hefty cabinet pay off. Remember that at the time Busuttil had resigned as a member of the European Parliament and had just been appointed deputy leader of the PN.

Well, I guess not everyone works for a fee!

You see there are altruists after all.

If ever there was an unsolved crime story, then this oil scandal saga is one. So far. And I would surmise that the less those in the PN talk, the better for all of us, and for them in particular.