Former Enemalta CEO opens up on relationship with oil trader

Former Enemalta CEO Karl Camilleri received Chirstmas hampers from oil trader George Farrugia, went out to dinner with him, met during "cordial" meetings and sought his advice after leaving the Corporation.

Camilleri doesn't remember the exact number of times he met Farrugia but remembers receiving a hamper containing four wine bottles. He also remembers that Enemalta officials, including a chairman, were present during the "one or two" dinners he had with Farrugia and Totsa representatives. Yet, he couldn't remember which chairman was it.

When Enemalta's petroleum division required "second-hand spare parts", Camilleri called Farrugia to see whether he could help them out. When Camilleri left Enemalta, taking with him the company's laptop and a number of other documents, he contacted Farrugia seeking his advice to start building a clientele for his business consultancy services project.

Eventually he had to return the documents, described as his "own working documents" to Enemalta on orders of the corporation's CEO.

All this was revealed during this morning's session of the Public Accounts Committee as it continues with its analysis of the National Audit Office report on Enemalta's fuel procurement process between 2008 and mid-2011.

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Camilleri, who served as chief executive officer between November 2008 and November 2011, got the €82,000 post after answering a public call for CEOs. His brief was to bring about financial stability to the state utility.

He left two years later: his term was up and he felt it was "time to call it a day".

Camilleri and Farrugia's 'cordial relationship'

Grilled by the four Labour MPs sitting on the PAC - Owen Bonnici, Chris Agius, Justyne Caruana and Luciano Busuttil - Camilleri admitted to meeting Trafigura agent George Farrugia - who was granted presidential pardon to turn state evidence on the Enemalta oil scandal - after leaving the Corporation.

"I wanted to set up my own business consultancy company and Farrugia was on my contact list. I called him to see whether he could refer me to any companies and he proposed we should meet for coffee," Camilleri told the PAC.

Not in a position to confirm the number of occasions, Camilleri also met Farrugia for cordial meetings in the presence of Enemalta officials. Some meetings were held at the chairman's office, other times in restaurants.

"I remember receiving a last-minute call urging me to join them for dinner. I went and found the CFO and the chairman there as well... I however can't remember which chairman was it," Camilleri added.

While he denied having ever met Farrugia at a Miami oil summit, he said he probably met him during other summits.

Camilleri and Farrugia's apparent 'close relationship' was further evidenced after the former CEO confirmed having called Farrugia when Enemalta's petroleum division required "second-hand spare parts". It is unclear what sort of spare parts he was referring to.

Pressed by Busuttil to explain why a call for tender wasn't issued for the purchasing of the spare parts, Camilleri said Enemalta required them "urgently".

Caruana also asked him point blank whether he had ever received any hampers from John's Garage, one of the businesses belonging to the Farrugia family and of whom Farrugia was a former owner.

"I don't recall ever receiving any hampers from John's Garage... I can't remember as to why they should send me a hamper. I do however remember receiving a hamper from him," Camilleri said.

After more quizzing from the government's side, Camilleri remembered receiving four wine bottles from Farrugia.

Totsa 'cosy' with Enemalta

On 19 January 2011, an extraordinary meeting of the fuel procurement committee was held in the chairman's office, a day after a tender was awarded to BB energy. The meeting was requested by Enemalta chief financial officer Antoine Galea after Totsa called him asking why they hadn't won the bid.

When the FPC opened the submitted offers a day before, Totsa's offer had not been included. An IT investigation discovered that whoever had sent the email, had flagged the email as "private", which meant that the chairman's secretary - the one who always printed the bids - didn't have access to it. 

But the apparently surprised Totsa - unclear who made the phone call - contacted the CFO (also an FPC member) and appeared to know that their bid should have been the preferred one. It turned out that their bid still wouldn't have been the preferred one as it was "administratively non-compliant".

Asked how come Totsa knew the tender had been awarded - given the unsuccessful bidders at the time were never informed - Camilleri said Totsa would have assumed that once they never received a call from Enemalta, then the tender had been awarded.

Camilleri couldn't remember who had made the phone call. But when asked whether it had been George Farrugia, the former CEO said "the name definitely was not Maltese".

According to Camilleri, Totsa also enjoyed an "information advantage". Since awarded bids were never made public due to commercially sensitive information, Totsa knew which bids to make having already secured other tenders before. Other suppliers, on the other hand, had "to guess".

Skiing holiday with ministry official

Even though he wasn't "that close" to Infrastructure Ministry official Pierre Carabott, Camilleri took his family on a skiing holiday with Carabott's family. "It was a one-time thing and we never did it again," Camilleri told the PAC.

Carabott, who served as project manager at MITC under Austin Gatt, also used to vet press releases before these were issued by Enemalta. Carabott is also one of the persons copied in the emails which Gatt sent to Enemalta on the hedging strategy.