Alan Camilleri to stay at Malta Enterprise, minister says on Dalli accusations

Finance minister Tonio Fenech has declared that Malta Enterprise chairman Alan Camilleri is to stay on in his post, despite the stern accusation by former minister John Dalli in MaltaToday, that Camilleri was part of a “conspiracy” to oust him from Cabinet in 2004.

In reply to a parliamentary question, Tonio Fenech stressed that Camilleri should “continue to serve” his post.

Tonio Fenech’s reply to Labour MP Gino Cauchi went a step further from a terse statement sent to MaltaToday from the Office of the Prime Minister a day after John Dalli called for investigations into the people he claimed to have “plotted his political assassination.”

A similar reply was given to the PL newspaper ‘Kulhadd’.

A spokesman for Castille had told MaltaToday: “the Prime Minister has nothing to add to what has already been said on this issue.”

No further replies were forthcoming from Castille in reaction to John Dalli’s comments.

In an extensive and revealing interview, John Dalli had reacted to recent confirmed jailing of private investigator Joe Zahra, for having fabricated the damning report that alleged corruption during the Mater Dei medical equipment tender, and that led the Prime Minister to insist for his resignation.

Dalli described his 2004 forced resignation from Lawrence Gonzi's cabinet in 2004, as part of a "prepared attack" to destroy him. He insisted that those who masterminded his fall be investigated while "others should shoulder their political responsibility."

"We know how this clique was formed, in the press, the Sunday Times, the Times, and Where's Everybody... they ganged up together with Ivan Camilleri (then PBS journalist) and Alan Camilleri (spokesperson for Lawrence Gonzi at the time of Dalli's resignation)," Dalli said.

Zahra was commissioned by Dutch firm Simed, to investigate the award of the  Mater Dei contract. His report was handed to the Prime Minister, who then gave the report to the Commissioner of Police to investigate. John Dalli claims he was forced to resign, when the PM told him he "could not have a minister under investigation."

John Dalli again pointed his finger at Times journalist Ivan Camilleri, who in 2004 was a journalist for PBS, and his brother Alan - today chairman of Malta Enterprise - who was Lawrence Gonzi's head of communications. He also pinpoints Where's Everybody, which employed private investigator Joe Zahra as a production team member, and also ran a Bondiplus edition on Dalli just days before his resignation.

Dalli described them as "the characters who ganged up together to politically assassinate me."