Police seeking proof Debono was aware of works-for-votes

Police investigators are sifting through evidence that can prove that former Nationalist minister for Gozo Giovanna Debono was aware that her husband Anthony, a civil servant inside the Gozo ministry, was carrying out private works on the ministerial budget, for constituents.

Key to the investigation will be a decision by the Gozitan courts on whether or not to freeze Anthony Debono’s assets, under money laundering procedures in the law.

The request to freeze his assets was objected to by defence counsel Joe Giglio, during Debono’s arraignment in the court of Magistrate Joanne Vella Cuschieri.

Debono, 59, was charged with the misappropriation of public funds and the abuse of his office, fraud, falsification of documents, committing crimes he was duty bound to prevent, and trying to prevent others from giving information or evidence to authorities.

The police are interested in discovering whether any suspicious transactions were made over the years by Anthony Debono, and they have not ruled out the possibility that Debono could have received some payments for his role in the works-for-votes ruse.

The story was broken by MaltaToday after a contractor who had carried out private works on behalf of Debono, was left out of pocket on pending monies when the Nationalists were voted out of power and Giovanna Debono was no longer minister.

 Debono, who was the head of the works division in the Gozo ministry, is suspected of having provided the raw material for private construction works and then paying out contractors through the ministry budget, on falsified invoices for other public works.

During his police interrogation Debono chose to remain silent and say nothing. 

In one of the original depositions given by the whistleblower who first came forward with the revelations, the contractor said that after demanding €50,000 in unpaid work from the minister’s husband, Debono came back with a part payment in a box “that smelt of mould” – suggesting that the money had been kept in a humid environment.

The police have not searched the Debono residence for clues.

Contrary to initial reports, Giovanna Debono – who will stay on as MP but has resigned from the Nationalist Party – was not investigated by the police, but merely accompanied her husband to his summoning at the police headquarters. 

MaltaToday is informed that Opposition leader Simon Busuttil confronted Giovanna Debono in his office in parliament, and suggested to her that she should resign her seat with immediate effect.

The move would have prompted a casual election that would have allowed Xaghra local councillor and PN candidate Kevin Cutajar to have a stab at her seat.

Debono refused to give up her seat, arguing her innocence.

Initially Busuttil stood by Debono after the latter denied any impropriety or knowledge of the allegations against her husband, and claimed that the allegations were being used for partisan politics and for “Joseph Muscat’s ulterior motives”. 

Busuttil repeatedly described the allegations on Anthony Debono as “mudslinging” from the Labour Party.

However, he said on PBS’s Reporter that he would act “depending on the results of a police investigation and on whether people end up charged in court in relation to the case”.

Police questioned several government officials following MaltaToday’s report, and sealed the Public Works Department in Victoria to ensure that no documents or materials were removed.

Three Gozitan contractors have come forward to substantiate claims that they were asked to carry out construction work for private residences or businesses by the Ministry for Gozo. They would be paid from funds allocated to ‘official’ government works that had been sanctioned through the normal channels.

But not all payments due to them were paid, and the case was blown open when the contractors’ dues remained unsettled.

Giovanna Debono’s political style had long been queried by politicians and journalists.

The works-for-votes revelations are the first evidence that point to the use of political influence to directly use public monies to curry favour with voters, abusively.

It has led to the fall of Giovanna Debono from grace, and the subsequent decision by Chris Said to resign as PN secretary-general to instead dedicate his energies to the Gozo constituency, in the hope of reversing the sweeping electoral swing there against the PN.