Trafigura and Total barred from Enemalta fuel tenders
Commodities giants Trafigura and Total banned from Enemalta fuel tenders given involvement in ongoing fuel procurement commissions investigations.
The Enemalta head office in Marsa. (Photo: Ray Attard/MediaToday)
Enemalta's oil purchasing board has reportedly barred international commodities firms Trafigura and Total from bidding on the corporation's fuel tenders because of their alleged connection to oil deals that are the focus of ongoing investigations.
The Times reports an Enemalta spokesperson as saying that "under the current circumstances of ongoing investigations, Enemala's Fuel Procurement Committee has decided to exclude Trafigura and TOTSA (Total's oil trading arm) from fuel tenders.
The committee also decided to cancel the most recent fuel procurement tenders issued even tough some offers had already been received.
"The process precludes the corporation's Procurement Committee from knowing who made an offer. No offers were opened and all invited suppliers were informed accordingly," the spokesperson is reported as saying.
The revelations follow in the wake of ongoing developments in the Enemalta oil-purchasing kickbacks corruption scandal, which is unfolding both in the newspapers and in the courts.
While today police are expected to arraign another two prominent businessmen in connection with the scandal, Maltatoday reported on Sunday that intense lobbying related to oil-purchasing had been ongoing, while the Times reported on Trafigura's insistence on having rogue oil trader George Farrugia on the local team.
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to clean sweep the whole process of scandals that have devastated the trust of all honest citizens in Malta, there is a need to clean sweep this Government. There is a drastic need of change and change there MUST be.Too much filth has already been swept under the carpet in the hope that it is not discovered.
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So Minister Tonio Fenech with all due respect, if it was not for the hard work and the breaking story by Maltatoday this whole scandal would have been carried on business as usual? These bribes have been going on for years and nobody was aware of how many millions of euros were passed on, as we say, under the table? If you tap in Trafigura's books according to the law of course, a lot will be brought up to the surface and a lot more will be known. That is why I find it a big shame that Dr Lawrence Gonzi found it not necessary to enact the Whistle Blower Act,I am sure he has nothing to hide. I think that this scandal is going to name and shame some very prominent people and who knows maybe even a politician or two, but that has yet to be seen. I think we need a clean sweep of this whole scandal so we can get back to running this country. Maybe the Government should assign an outside independent third party to investigate this whole scandal. Being this is Malta, that would make a lot more sense. We cannot afford to have any local investigators look the other way. NO POLITICS PLEASE.
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I perfectly agree with Darwin, and even add that these Total and Trafigura officials, if brought over to be interrogated, could even lead to more clues as to who else was involved in the scandal from the Malta side.
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Why doesn't this committee exclude itself?
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I would have thought that efforts would be made to bring to book Trafigura and Total officials who have allegedly participated in the alleged illicit commissions. Without them there would have been no crime. A European warrant for their arrest should be issued and they should be interrogated. One needs to send a message that the big boys cannot escape facing up to their responsibilities. The emails point to their alleged involvement in a big way and therefore the law should apply to them too. Excluding them from the bidding process is not enough.
