Former Sliema mayor insists Borg Olivier urged him to choose contractor over another

Summoned as a witness before Magistrate Franco Depasquale in a libel suit filed by PN secretary-general Paul Borg Olivier against MediaToday, the former PN Sliema mayor Nikki Dimech confirmed his claim that Borg Olivier had called him minutes before a council meeting, asking him to “give preference” to “company A rather than company B.”

Asked to clarify this statement, Dimech said that Borg Olivier asked him to give preference to GreenMT, a waste recycling firm owned by the Small Business Chamber GRTU, rather than GreenPak, for the recycling of waste in Sliema.

According to Dimech, GRTU director-general and former PN European Parliament candidate Vince Farrugia appeared as a director at GreenMT.

In his evidence, Dimech explained that there was no tender issued for the contract, given that only Green MT and GreenPak do recycling waste collections, and the Sliema Local Council had issued an expression of interest.

When both companies applied, separate meetings were held between the directors of the two and the whole Council.

The contract included a €72,000 educational campaign obligation to be taken up by the winning contractor, in a bid to finance a campaign which would lead residents to separate their waste.

“Following Paul Borg Olivier’s call to tell me which company to prefer, I never signed any contract, and this remained pending, until I was removed from office and the next PN mayor approved the contract two weeks into her new job,” Dimech said.

Phone call

Nikki Dimech also confirmed his previous declarations that soon after he had been released from police custody on August 11, 2010 regarding allegations made by the former Sliema council works contractor Stephen Buhagiar, he was surprised that Paul Borg Olivier was the first person to phone him within minutes of leaving the Police headquarters, knowing that he had already given two statements to the police.

Dimech said that Borg Olivier – who was in Gozo that day – had told him that his position was now “politically untenable” and that he had to resign.

Borg Olivier insisted that Dimech goes to the party headquarters and submit his resignation the next day and hand it to his deputy, Jean-Pierre Debono.

Dimech argued with Borg Olivier and refused to resign on the basis that he was simply responding to allegations made by Buhagiar.

Arrest

Dimech also spoke about his arrest during police investigations, saying that he had gone to the Police headquarters in Floriana on the premise that Inspector Angelo Gafà had wanted to speak to him about the Buhagiar affair.

He said that he was interrogated and relplied to all questions, but he was overcome by panic when he was told that he was going to be taken to a holding cell.

“Once in there, my panic changed to a severe asthma attack, and I was denied the use of my inhaler, and while I was later given access to it, I was still under the effect of the attack and simply said ‘yes’ to everything I was asked during my second interrogation later that afternoon,” Dimech said.