Open letter to John Rizzo

To the Commissioner of Police,

Dear John,

I hope that this letter finds you good and in the best of health - unlike other Johns whom I may happen to know.

You see, some people are deemed to be innocent or guilty before they are even arraigned.

I could give you a few examples.

In today's issue you will find some hard evidence which is hardly superficial. It  shows how a member of the procurement committee at Enemalta received kickbacks camouflaged as consultancy from a Dutch commodities company.

I must tell you that the members of the procurement committee at Enemalta are not known to the public but are seemingly known to the people who manage Enemalta and the politicians who appoint members to this committee.

In my 30 odd years in journalism, I have rarely had concrete proof of corruption. This is one of those rare occasions.

The other cases involved the testimony of Joe Borg - a whistleblower who uncovered the corruption of Lorry Sant and his cronies and as a result of prescription laws, nothing was actioned.

I'm sure you can remember what Lorry Sant was all about. He was, after all, once minister for police. Well, when Sant and his cronies beat the living hell out of me in 1985, the police, instead of rushing to our rescue, arrested us and accused of disrupting the Labour thugs who were beating us.

For his noble role in whistleblowing, at the age of 75 your police officers, together with the Attorney General's office, first requested that Joe Borg be incarcerated at Kordin and now have requested the freezing of his assets. 

All this because of an email to this Schembri. This is a defamation case instituted by Rita Schembri - the disgraced head of government's Internal Audit office.

A person who should have been asked to resign by Permanent Secretary at the Office of the Prime Minister (Godwin Grima) but was not asked to... for obvious reasons, which only Grima is aware of. 

I think it would be appropriate to say here that both your prosecution officer and Attorney General Peter Grech should be ashamed of themselves.

Today the story we are publishing elaborates on the kickbacks deposited by the mega company Trafigura, a huge commodities company involved in the sale of oil to Enemalta. 

Trafigura  is renowned for its corruption and illicit activity all around the world.  If you wish, you may contact your partners at Interpol and ask them about Trafigura.

Frank Sammut was a political appointee who stood as a member of the procurement committee in Enemalta. Records show that Sammut received money in his Gibraltar-registered company, which had a Swiss bank account.

Trafigura did not hesitate to make reference to the contract number of the sale to Enemalta.

We are talking very big money here.

You may wish to view the copy of the invoices presented in this newspaper as evidence.

Thankfully, this is not circumstantial, but hard evidence. The term 'circumstantial evidence' was flippantly used by that former Italian magistrate Giovanni Kessler, who has made a name for himself with his circumstantial evidence crusade. 

Rita Schembri - who met Kessler - would be very happy to divulge what her role in fortifying Kessler's inquisitive mind was all about. I am sure that Kessler had no idea about the sheer level of odium towards John Dalli that persists at the Prime Minister's office.

Perhaps he should take a break from chattering away - and showing off his feeble grasp of the English language - and take an honest look at the political infighting within the PN, and the cruel retribution it metes out to all those who rock the boat.

You will also find the evidence we are producing is not detto del detto and that no one from the Office of the Prime Minister is anxious to see anyone prosecuted.

So please, don't worry.

Neither is it my word against his or her word.

I am sure you will find the phrase 'two weights and two measures' to be quite fitting.

John - I hope you do not mind calling you John - I'm sure you will agree with me that there have been very few cases - if any cases at all - when the Prime Minister's office has asked you to investigate people who were appointed by their good selves. Here I'm referring to chairmen, chief executive members, consultants, etc, etc...

For example, did the OPM ask you to investigate when Tonio Fenech's secretary Noel Borg Hedley - who was busy accepting money from Fenech's own canvassers the Montebello brothers - and to change administrative fines imposed on them? I wonder, did you venture out to determine whether the minister had ever involved himself - directly or indirectly - in seeing to administrative fines? 

By the way, it would be timely to point out that a number of news reports -including one by MaltaToday - which reported that the Montebello brothers, who at the time were renovating Minister Tonio Fenech's house, had been informed that the work they were asked to do was part of a 'favour' for the Minister's alleged involvement in the issue of Jerma Palace Hotel!

I wonder, did you ever 'interrogate' Tonio Fenech and keep him in a cell for the night? Please, can you define what trading in influence is all about?

I mean, are you aware of the fact that most of the people who meet the minister - at his constituency office, and his ministry - do not chat to him about Arsenal, they talk to him most of the time about 'fiscal' issues such as VAT fines and other tax-related incidents.

I venture to ask: what exactly is legal or not legal, when it comes to these matters?

But then again, I do not even know why I am questioning your level of zeal when dealing with a minister. 

I am also sure you will agree with me when I say that the plague of corruption is magnified by the very fact that many of the people who are alleged to be involved are  appointed not by virtue of their competence or integrity, but on the strength of their political leanings.

I am sure you will appreciate that corruption is pervasive in our society, and is not restricted to one singular case. It goes beyond a judge eating a ribeye steak for free at a resto, or asking his butcher to buy a mobile phone for him.

It is endemic because there is a culture of 'omerta'. One person refuses to point out the dirt that exists for fear of being accused himself, or even persecuted.

You can't really blame them. When a whistleblower - a soldier - revealed that the late Joe Fenech entered the customs section at the airport terminal and walked out with a painting, the soldier was dismissed and the newspaper editor was fined and found guilty of trying to ruin the electoral chances of the minister.  The judge, by the way, was Justice Joe Said Pullicino.

This case of corruption is an important case, which will prove how serious we all are.

This is not about someone alleging that kickbacks could take place or will take place or are known to take place or could take place.

This is about a kick back that did happen, and that could have impacted on why so many people were so bloody excited about oil.

There is, of course, a lot of money to be had in this business. A cursory look at how much fuel has been purchased by Enemalta over the years could give you an overview of the matter. In four years, it amounts to a billion dollars or more.

I am sure that this story will lead your leading senior fraud officers Michael Cassar and Angelo Gafa' to rush to their desks to see what next.

Please ask them not to bother me on Sunday, Monday or Tuesday: these days happen to coincide with precious birthdays in my family. I am sure three days will not make a difference. Corruption is endemic in this country but you are more than welcome to send your officers to my office on Wednesday morning.

By the way, do they take sugar with their coffee? And do they prefer fresh milk from Benna or the  condensed kind? 

Yours truly,

Saviour Balzan

San Gwann