Enemalta official informed Farrugia of remaining oil stock

New emails published by MaltaToday from 2008 show how pardoned oil trader George Farrugia, was currying favour with key public officials, pointing towards his convenient relationship with state utility Enemalta.

The new revelations raise new questions as to whether a presidential pardon awarded to Farrugia in February 2013, should be withdrawn.

The latest emails show Farrugia receiving sensitive information relating to fuel stocks from a senior manager at Enemalta.

Emmanuel Mizzi, principal at the Shipping Unit of the Petroleum Division at Enemalta, would email Farrugia with details of stock known in the trade as white oils.

In this way Farrugia was made aware of all Enemalta’s remaining oil stocks, and how competitors of companies Trafigura and Totsa, both represented by Farrugia, were acting.

Farrugia sent the email messages he received through the Yahoo email account of his wife Cathy. In other emails, Emmanuel Mizzi’s familiarity with George Farrugia was underlined with the use of slang, denoting a close familiarity: “Hi George, Għalik King – Fuel Oil posted. Cheerio.”

The icing on the cake is a thread of emails from Mizzi, telling Farrugia: “I wish to share the pleasure for the achievement of my MBA and extend my deepest gratitude to your support.”

Mizzi’s familiarity with George Farrugia was underlined with the use of slang words denoting a close familiarity.

Farrugia replies: “Prosit Man.  It was my pleasure,” implying that Farrugia could have sponsored Mizzi’s MBA. Mizzi writes back telling him: “Surely from a sincere friend.”

Farrugia’s patronage of Enemalta employees seems to have been widespread.  What is significant is that these emails shed light on new evidence, crucially on the years 2008 and 2009. That’s because the presidential pardon granted to Farrugia was conditional on his telling the truth, but his testimony to the police went only as far as 2005, because he had no details to give after that, Farrugia had told police.

On Sunday, police arrested and interrogated Godwin Sant, who served as director for energy regulation and later as chief officer energy policy at the Malta Resources Authority under the previous administration, and accepted a gift sent to him by Trafigura at Farrugia’s request: football tickets from Trafigura while he during a London stay.

Until Tuesday morning, Godwin Sant was still under arrest at the Floriana police headquarters.

Sant was a very senior director at the state regulatory body, responsible for overseeing that fuel specifications of imported oil were according to strict tender requirements.

Throughout his tenure at the MRA, he kept a close relationship with George Farrugia: in April 2009, Farrugia made arrangements for Godwin Sant to receive football tickets in the UK from Trafigura as a gift. Apart from the suspicious informality, the very fact that a regulator was keeping close contact with the Trafigura and Totsa agent, raises serious questions about his conduct.

One of the more important elements in the tendering process – so far completely ignored in police investigations – was the job of the Malta Resources Authority in serving as an overseer in the fuel specifications of the imported oil.  

The MRA would subcontract a private company to take samples of the oil and report to it the findings it made. Tenderers such as Trafigura were expected to respect specifications for oil importation, but the final word about whether the specifications were being adhered to was that of the Malta Resources Authority.

When specifications were found to be too high in sulphur content, the oil company was expected to address the matter by blending the oil – a procedure that was very expensive to carry out and considered to be a huge expense by the oil companies.

Godwin Sant’s situation placed him in the sensitive position of overseeing that the fuel specifications protocol was adhered to. And in many cases, Trafigura and other companies depended on the verification of the specifications to make a sale.  

Trafigura was renowned for being off the mark in fuel specifications in many other countries. At Enemalta, Trafigura won many contracts based on the presumption that it was supplying a low sulphur fuel.  

On Sunday, the day the story on this was published, George Farrugia flew out of the country with his lawyer, Siegfried Borg Cole, to Rome and is expected to return today.

The police are expected to interrogate him on his return.