Court orders permanent freeze of Anthony Debono’s assets

Gozo’s Court of Magistrates this afternoon ordered the permanent freeze of assets belonging to Anthony Debono, husband of former Gozo minister Giovanna Debono.

Debono is facing 13 charges, amongst them misappropriation of public funds, in his alleged role in devising a works-for-votes system to carry out private works for constituents while he ran the Construction Maintenance Unit inside the Gozo ministry.

After considering what the witnesses have said so far, Magistrate Neville Camilleri said he was ordering a permanent freeze of the assets, effectively upholding the request made by the prosecution. Up until today, the asset freeze was a temporary one.

The court also upheld the defence request for the Police to provide it with statements given during the course of the investigation.

The defence counsel had asked the court to relieve his client of the asset freeze which they said was “crippling” Debono.

Assisted by his lawyers Joe Giglio and Stephen Tonna Lowell and accompanied by his wife, Debono sat in the middle of the courtroom as the prosecution brought in a further five witnesses today.

The first witness called in by the prosecution was Mario Camilleri, assistant director at the Projects and Development Directorate. Camilleri knew Debono at the place of work, given that Debono had been the officer in charge within the same department.

Camilleri explained that the CMU would carry mostly maintenance works related to sidewalks, country lanes, rubble walls, football grounds and so forth. The contractors delivering the supplies would present the invoices and Debono, as the officer in charge, would sign and approve then.

This has been corroborated by various other witnesses in past sittings and by Pietru Debono today. Debono, a mechanic by profession, forms part of a consortium set up in the 1990s and which has been providing concrete to the Gozo Ministry, including the CMU, ever since.

He referred to Debono as the person “who ran everything”.

“Tony Debono would usually call me to tell me that they needed concrete and where to take it. My truck driver would then give Debono a delivery note to sign. In the absence of Debono, we would either go to the CMU’s office or Debono would come to ours,” the concrete supplier told Inspector Rennie Stivala.

Payments to the suppliers would be made later, usually distributed by Joe Cordina, the consortium’s accountant.

Under cross-examination, Pietru Debono confirmed that the same system was retained today. Asked directly by lawyer Joe Giglio whether he had supplied concrete on private sites, the supplier replied in the negative. He also said Debono never asked him to issue any invoices for work not carried out.

Another former assistant director, Reno Grech, recalled that there existed tension between Debono and Projects Director Joe Portelli over period contracts.

Responsible for the order of concrete supply, Debono would make use of period contracts with a specified supply. According to Grech, the amounts were always exceeded and Debono would transfer them as direct orders – at which point the accused could be seen shaking his head in disagreement.

Grech said this created arguments between Portelli and Debono, and the ministry’s permanent secretary would also intervene. Under cross-examination, Grech confirmed that the same problem persisted even after the general election.

The prosecution also called as witnesses two women, Annette Zammit, of Zebbug, and Anna Aquilina of Ghasri.

Both women were questioned by the police in April. Zammit was questioned over the laying of concrete in a lane leading to fields and land belonging to her father’s cousin, herself and her brother.

“The first field belongs to a certain Carmel Bajada and the adjacent land belongs to my brother and me. Bajada told us that they were going to lay concrete and we asked whether we could pass the sewer main. We applied for the necessary permits … the sewage main line was never connected but the concrete was laid.”

Cross-examined by Giglio, Zammit said they never complained about the state of the road and they never asked for concrete to be laid.

The last witness to be called in by the prosecution was Aquilina, who for years had sought to have a sewer main connected to a house in Ghasri.

“I had told the minister [Giovanna Debono] and her husband but they didn’t do anything. I had even told the council. I even used to go see Debono and beg him, but he did nothing in seven years. Now they did the road and they finally connected the sewage system,” she said.

Aquilina used to live in a condemned house and couldn’t move out until the sewage system was working.

Under cross-examination it transpired that the delay in the installation was also connected to disagreements the woman has with third parties.