Joe Cilia and colour-blind reportage

Perhaps some of our readers may have forgotten our news reports about Labour personalities and politics. Memory is a privilege limited to a few. Since the Nationalist Party has been in power over the past 25 years, it is obvious that a large number of our investigative stories have focused on the PN.

But this has not always been the case.

We were (to put it mildly) very critical of Alfred Sant's policies in the 1996-98 period; though, years later, his bad policies have been dwarfed by far worse decisions by the present Prime Minister: apart from the fact that the last years of this administration have been dominated by a number of wrong and illogical decisions and no respect for transparency and accountability, as was the case with previous administrations.

We were also critical of other Labour politicians such as former Minister Louis Buhagiar. In fact, there are ongoing libel cases involving Labour politicians - and these include Buhagiar and former deputy PL leader Michael Falzon.

In all such cases, the attack on our media's independence has been telling and consistent. But none of those who have coordinated this campaign have cared to remind themselves of our vehement and strong editorial stand when Labour was found to fail. Yet, most of the attacks are led by those close to Dr Lawrence Gonzi, and not necessarily those in the Nationalist Party.

Former Labour junior minister Joe Cilia's resurrection into Labour party politics confirms that the media have a crucial role to remind people about the past. 

What is more shocking is that Cilia states that he was invited to stand by Muscat himself!

When Cilia was not selected by Alfred Sant as a shadow minister after his 21-month stint as parliamentary secretary, it was because of his history of unethical behaviour. 

Namely, that he had selected his notarial colleague to represent the secretariat for sports, among other things. Later it transpired that Cilia had been implicated and investigated over a sexual harassment case. Maybe, just maybe, Sant knew things that we did not know.

When a journalist from this newsroom asked Kurt Farrugia - the press spokesman for the Labour party - about their stand on Cilia, Farrugia suggested that if we have any 'compromising information', we should pass it on to the police.

That kind of reply is usually reserved to us from government spokesmen, not opposition spokesmen. The government is renowned for tossing any allegation to the police. I have to say that I find Farrugia's suggestion insulting. It reminds me of the office of the Prime Minister's past and present spokesman Alan Camilleri, and Gordon Pisani's arrogant attitude when faced with inquiries.

It is up to Labour and its leader Joseph Muscat to decide whether they will treat unethical behaviour with party candidates in the same way Lawrence Gonzi treats misconduct among his candidates.

It is a sorry situation which does not augur well for future politics.

I have dug up archives on Cilia and have reproduced some of them. Cilia's unethical behaviour has nothing to do with the police. The police are not the guardians of ethical behaviour in our political class. If they were, we would be in serious trouble; and politicians cannot serve as their own guardians.

But there are stories which involve the police.

The misuse of EU money for the purchase of airline tickets by Labour council candidates Michael Cohen and Claudette Baldacchino - together with other candidates from the Nationalist Party - concerns criminal procedures in court. If this is not a serious case for resignation, then what is? Neither the PL nor the PN have cared to give this issue any importance.

If we defraud a government institution such as the VAT department, we are not only investigated but in some cases debarred from public office. But Cohen et al are immune to this kind of treatment. 

The Labour Party has chosen to ignore pertinent questions about their 'suitability' as candidates. This is unacceptable.

If Muscat wants to lead by example, then this is his chance.

What is good for the goose seems not to be good for the gander.

Julian Galea - the PN Sliema councillor who talked of 'Labour phobia' and should have resigned but was not asked to by his Prime Minister - is a sad case.

Sadder still, was when the Prime Minister failed to note that this particular candidate had other problems which were not addressed - such as MEPA permits for his outlet.

Perhaps we should have taken Farrugia's suggestion and lobbed the phobia comment onto John Rizzo's lap!

But MaltaToday is colour-blind to the creed and hue of the people involved: to us, the issue is the story.

In a letter to this newspaper, Cilia has asked me not to be negative. He confuses being negative with being complacent and forgetful.

MaltaToday is neither. Cilia should be stopped from standing. The ball, I'm afraid, is in Joseph Muscat's court.

The Cilia chronicles, published on 8 December 2002

January 4, 1998

• Alfred Sant writes Joe Cilia a warning after contracts related to the concession of sport facilities were published by the notary running Joe Cilia's private professional office. Cilia had given the brief for publishing these contracts to Notary Joseph Debono, who takes care of his professional practice while he is PS, when these contracts should have been published by the government's own notary.
• The case is related to the appointment of Notary Joseph Debono by the Secretariat for Sports to draw up 25 contracts for the transfer of sports facilities and land to sports societies. In-Nazzjon claims he was recommended by Joe Cilia.
• In an exchange of letters between Alfred Sant and Joe Cilia, the PM writes to Dr Cilia making it clear that he "expects greater prudence to be exercised in such matters and that as much as possible, notarial work on government contracts should be assigned to government notaries in line with the current practice" (The People 4/1/98). Cilia confirms that Notary Debono will not be charging professional fees for the contract related to the concession of facilities to sports societies.
• The People confirms that many of the 25 societies that were given concessions had already paid notarial fees of approximately Lm65 per contract when these were signed.

January 12, 1998

• In a press statement, Joe Cilia denies having a professional relationship with Notary Debono. He declares that when he was appointed PS for YSC he passed on his pending professional work to Debono. Cilia declares the PM did not find anything irregular in his actions but only that he admonished him into being more prudent. Cilia declares that Debono offered not to be paid for his professional fees. Cilia says Fr Hilary Tagliaferro, Chairperson of Sports Council, asked him for a notary who could speed up the paperwork and that he did not know a government notary could have provided the services.

January 30, 1998

• Joe Cilia is accused of having misled The People when in November he denied that all the cleaners that had been employed at the National Swimming Pool hailed from his electoral district. On January 27, Austin Gatt tabled a document in the House of Representatives showing a list of 11 people that Cilia had illegally employed to work at the National Swimming Pool. Seven of these people hail from the 11th district, and others are relatives of his staff.
• Joe Cilia initiates legal proceedings against The People for failing to print in its entirety his reply to the story "PM slams Joe Cilia" on January 4.
• In-Nazzjon claims Joe Cilia's wife, Rita, received over Lm1,400 from Notary Debono who took over pending work at Cilia's office. The paper claims that on September 18, 1997, Debono passed on to Rita Cilia a cheque of Lm466; on October 10, 1997 a cheque of Lm328; and on November 6, 1997 a cheque of Lm643.

February 1, 1998

• Austin Gatt, writing in The Sunday Times, says that Evarist Bartolo, answering for Joe Cilia, answered one of his parliamentary questions, admitting that the management board of the NSP (part of the Sports Department) had employed seven part-time cleaners in 1997 and that before employing them did not refer the request to the ETC (Government rules state that government entities or limited liability companies partly owned by government have to send a request to the ETC beforehand).

March 24, 1998

• The People reports that the person running the bar at the NSP is Cilia's partner in Rosita Ltd. The company that was entrusted with running the bar, Catering Ltd, was registered with the Registrar of Partnerships on September 26, 1997, but submitted a bid for tender on June 20, 1997.
• The tender was made public through an advert published in the papers while the Department of Contracts was bypassed and the notice did not appear in the Government Gazette.
• The bid made by Catering Ltd was an offer of Lm150 more than the highest bidder. According to The People, the bid was not an offer of a defined amount and should have been disqualified according to Contract Department norms.
• Catering Ltd's director is Joseph Sammut from Attard and is owned by Tapam Ltd (C21018), in turn owned by two nominee shareholders on whose behalf Messrs Deloitte & Touche appear on company documents.
• The director of Tapam Ltd is Victor Chetcuti. The bar is however being run by Carmel Chetcuti, a very close relative of Victor Chetcuti, and a partner with Joe Cilia in Rosita Ltd.

April 19, 1998

• The accountants for the NSP are changed. Until 1996, the accountants were Coopers & Lybrand. Following Cilia's appointment, the accounts for the pool were handed over to accountant Stephen McCarthy, whom The People claim is a personal friend and a well-known staunch supporter of Cilia.

May 24, 1998

• Austin Gatt writes in the Sunday Times about a PQ answered by Evarist Bartolo. In August 1997, Skolasport issued applications for interested participants.

In October, the head of the Sports Division issued quotations for the purchase of tracksuits (included in application fee paid to Skolasport), but did not issue a tender.

• The quotes received per tracksuit were: Tuttosport Lm8.05, A.Grech Pollacco Lm7.80 and Eros Lm6.50 (l) and Lm5.80 (s). The adjudicating board set up by the Department of Sports chose Pollacco's quotation. Bartolo appoints Esprit Pace (who investigated NSP case) to investigate.
• Austin Gatt writes it is public knowledge that Cilia's Secretariat hires its cars from a company belonging to his business associate.

July 5, 1998

• Austin Gatt writes in the STM about the Skolasport investigations, writing that Minister Bartolo asked for a full scale investigation of the matter and for the OPM to initiate disciplinary proceedings against a number of persons. Austin Gatt writes that Joe Fava, chairman of Skolasport (whom he also describes as "having been a Labour-eating Nationalist firebrand up till the early Eighties, then becoming a Nationalist-eating Labour firebrand") had obtained tracksuit quotations to be supplied to the children, and for this reason increased the fee from Lm5 to Lm10. Skolasport however does not have its own financial vote and depends on the Department of Sports for its finances. Still, Fava asked for the supply of 2,500 tracksuits from the person with the second best quotation.
• Austin Gatt contends that although the tracksuits arrived in Malta in one whole batch, "someone" from Skolasport instructed the tenderer to deliver them in different batches, thus issuing eight different invoices.
• Austin Gatt contends that although an adjudicating board was set up by the Department of Sports to decide on the quotations received, Fava was the one who opened the quotations.
• He adds that the adjudicating board submitted its report, choosing the tenderer on October 17, 1997. However, this tenderer had by then already issued four invoices to Skolasport (dated 1/9/98, 15/9/98, 26/9/98 and 10/10/98) all of which were paid.
• Austin Gatt alleged the successful tenderer was married to Fava's sister, who was appointed chairman of Skolasport by Cilia.

July 14, 1998

• In-Nazzjon claims contradictions in Cilia's declarations of assets.
• Joe Cilia's declarations for 1996 include his residence in Hal-Tarxien and his two offices in Valletta and Hal-Ghaxaq; 250 Lm1 shares in Rosita Ltd and 498 Lm1.25 shares in BOV; Lm14,255 deposited at BOV, and a directorship of Rosita Ltd; his declared income for 1996 was of Lm14,683 from his profession as a notary and an honorarium of Lm5,622 as an MP (Lm20,305).
• His debt at the end of 1996 was Lm8,985 with Lohombus for his house, and a new debt with BOV of Lm30,924.
• In 1997 he declared the same fixed property; his 250 shares in Rosita increased to Lm12 each and his BOV shares were worth Lm1.34 each; his BOV deposits were Lm12, 586; he still was a director of Rosita Ltd; his income for the year decreased to Lm6,718 and his income as Parliamentary Secretary was of Lm10,987 and was still owed Lm2,600 for his professional services.
• His debt with Lohombus decreased to Lm7,165 and his BOV debt had decreased to Lm13,362 (NOTE - decreased by Lm17,562 in one year, and therefore Joe Cilia managed to pay both banks a total of Lm19,352 in a year)
• Rueben Fenech, Private Secretary for Cilia, writes to In-Nazzjon saying that repayment of loans were made through income of previous years deposited in bank accounts.