Enemalta’s CFO warned Trafigura on ‘off-spec’ oil consignments

Welcome to MaltaToday's live blog of the PAC hearing into the Auditor General's audit of Enemalta's fuel procurement policy

EXPLAINER | Auditor General's report on Enemalta fuel procurement

Enemalta's former CEO Karl Camilleri had refused to return official documents he took with him when he left Enemalta until the corporation paid him pending payments.

Antoine Galea, the state corporation's chief financial officer, this evening tabled before the Public Accounts Committee a series of emails between Camilleri, former Enemalta chairman William Spiteri Bailey and current chairman Louis Giordimaina.

Camilleri left Enemalta in November 2011, taking with him the office laptop which contained sensitive information pertaining to Enemalta. He also departed with a number of documents which the corporation requested him to return two months later.

But according to Galea, Camilleri refused to hand in the documents until he was paid his arrears.

Replying to an email that asked him to hand in a number of documents, Camilleri said he would "expect that at the delivery of these items, the final sum will also be paid immediately".

The email correspondence shows Camilleri asking for pending payments for leave, car allowance, December salary and 15% bonus among others.

"[These] were agreed to with Minister and William and I was then asked to sign a paper about my request not to renew the contract. I inherently inherently trusted William and knew the minister would not back track on his agreement so, I expect payment to be done asap," Camilleri wrote in his email dated 16 January 2012.

Camilleri was told he would be paid after returning company documents.

The email exchange however did not list the final amounts that were agreed to as a parting handshake.

'No post mortem'

After 18 January 2011, Galea said the procedure by which the fuel procurement committee operated had been changed in 2011 and the bids were then printed in front of the whole fuel procurement committee.

Before, the printing of the oil bids were the chairman's secretary responsibility after downloading the emails from the chairman's account.

"As far as I can remember, the chairman would come in with the laptop and print the bids in front of us. As far as I can remember, even phone calls were held before the committee," Galea said.

He also said the previous administration did not carry out "a post mortem" on the FPC's modus operandi when the oil scandal was revealed.

"By that time, the FPC had adopted a policy which we are building on today," he added.

Galea warned Trafigura to comply with tender specifications

After Trafigura repeatedly supplied Enemalta with oil consignment which was off specifications, the state corporation find the oil company $250,000 warning that if the incident were to be repeated, the fine would increase to $400,000.

According to Galea, the $400,000 were the minimum.

Galea said he told Trafigura trader Mark Russell "in the most assertive manner that they would be kicked out" if they were to go on not complying with the tender specifications.

"The warning had worked because following consignments were at 0.7% sulphur content," he said.

Labour MP Justyne Caruana noted that consignments would still be off spec, to which Galea replied that his responsibility had been sulphur content. Other questions should be referred to the head of the petroleum division.

Galea, like previous witnesses, also confirmed that oil trader George Farrugia would be present during meetings that the corporation would hold with Trafigura.

He said that during the "heated" meeting Enemalta held with Trafigura over the off spec consignment, Farrugia had intervened with Mark Russell "to calm down the situation".

"He told him that the two would talk about it after the meeting," Galea said.