System working well to root out fraudsters - Austin Gatt

Transport Minister Austin Gatt has defended the administration's ability to root out fraudsters in the public sector, after three men were remanded in custody over a €500,000 fraud in road contracts through Transport Malta.

Replying to statements by Opposition leader Joseph Muscat, who yesterday said political responsibility had to be shouldered for the Transport Malta scandal, Gatt said the best that any governmental administration could do is to catch out any abuse and see that justice is made.

"The fact that the TM employee in question is being charged on fraud, and not corruption as stated by Muscat, shows clearly that such abuse is not tolerated, and that there are processes that are capable of identifying such abuse."

Three men were remanded in custody after they were charged with siphoning off some €500,000 from taxpayers' money in inflated road contracts.

Gordon Zammit, 36, of Ghaxaq, employed as an architect within the Roads Directorate at Transport Malta was sent to Corradino Prison where he is being held under preventative arrest following his arraignment.

Zammit - who although lives in Ghaxaq but his ID card puts him at an address in Tower Road, Sliema - was arraigned following an investigation which led police to also arrest a construction developer George Schembri of Birzebbuga, director of Alfred Schembri and Sons Ltd, and his accounts clerk, 36-year-old Donald Camilleri, as the people who benefited from the scam.

According to Inspector Angelo Gafa from the Economic Crimes Unit, Schembri's company profited up to €500,000 in jut one year by inflating bills of quantities for road works done throughout the country.

Opposition leader Joseph Muscat yesterday said this latest 'bribery' case was the most recent in a series that have dented the governmet's record. "There's no smoke without fire and this shows a serious lack of leadership inside GonziPN. Somebody must take political responsiblity for this recent scandal."

Muscat said the new corruption racket was just one that has marred the history of Transport Malta, citing other cases in the issuing of motor vehicle licences, mariners' licences, as well as bribery accusations made against the person who led the superyachts' privatisation. "We'll see that somebody shoulders the political responsibility for this disaster inside Transport Malta," Muscat said.

In a reaction, the PN's information office said Labour had welcomed in its fold persons who had been accused in court of corruption and criminal acts. No names were mentioned in the PN statement.

"While the PN took disciplinary steps against people accused in court, these same people found their space within the Labour party and its media," the PN said.

"The people's choice is between Labour's words and the PN's fight against corruption and criminality."

A fouth person in the charges, 36 year-old scrap dealer Godfrey Cutajar, admitted to being the middle-man between Zammit and Schembri Bros Limited, and also admitted to charges of bribery and money laundering.

Cutajar was charged with having acted on behalf of Gasparell Baling Co. Limited to launder the money which was paid by Schembri and Camilleri to the Transport Malta architect.

The court decreed that given the admission, there was enough evidence to indict Cutajar and referred the case to the Attorney General who has the discretion to decide on whether the accused will be sentenced by the lower courts or have his case referred to trial by jury.