Former Mimcol head to face criminal procedures

The former chief executive of government’s investment arm Mimcol will be arraigned in a criminal court in January 2012.

Mario Mizzi was investigated by police after whistleblower Paul Cardona, a member of a consortium bidding for the Malta Superyachts privatisation, said he was invited by Mizzi to “take care of him” in return for a favourable outcome in the tendering process.

Finance Minister Tonio Fenech yesterday told parliament that a police investigation into the case had been concluded and criminal procedures had been started against a person. He did not state who this person was.

Cardona had said he had first reported Mizzi’s advance to a member of the prime minister’s secretariat, Leonard Callus back in September 2009. Callus informed finance minister Tonio Fenech who himself did not report it to the police, instead asking Privatisation Unit members to deny the allegations.

When the allegation made it to parliament in 2010, this time via Opposition leader Joseph Muscat, the matter was put to a police investigation by the Prime Minister.

A spokesperson for the finance ministry refused to confirm that the former CEO was the person who would be prosecuted in court over the bribery allegations. “To be fair, it’s a question about police so you can’t expect an answer from us,” the spokesperson said.

Mario Mizzi was a member of the Evaluation Committee of the Privatisation Unit and CEO of Mimcol, which falls under the finance minister’s remit.

When Mizzi was put on forced leave after the investigation, finance minister Tonio Fenech pushed ahead with the privatisation process of the superyacht facility, the most lucrative of facilities from the four Malta Shipyards unit that were put on the market.

The process had been stopped in November 2009 when government said the bids had been unsatisfactory. But the other side of the coin was that one of the bidding consortia had flagged the competitive process, after two individual bidders – Palumbo and Manoel Island Consortium – were allowed to present a joint bid.

Then it was stopped again on 2 February 2010, with the government saying once again that none of the offers had been satisfactory. The process was restarted, with the superyachts facility being clinched by Palumbo, the new owner of the neighbouring shipyards.