Times graft inquiry: Giovanni Bonello mum over finalised inquiry report

An internal inquiry launched by the publishers of The Times into allegations of graft in regard to Allied Group’s former managing director Adrian Hillman, has yet to see the light of day six months since it was set up.

Last week, judge Giovanni Bonello – appointed in March to chair the internal inquiry – was also appointed chairman of the Strickland Foundation, which controls 78% of the Allied Group.

The move had been expected months before, sources said, despite reservations that as head of the internal inquiry Bonello was a gamekeeper turning poacher, now heading the foundation that effectively controls the Allied Group.

Bonello’s chairmanship sparked renewed interest in what the internal inquiry he was leading had indeed achieved: the General Workers Union-owned inewsmalta.com reported that the inquiry had been finalised, but in their comments both Bonello and Allied’s managerial director Michel Rizzo would neither confirm nor deny the claim.

When in March news broke of the offshore Panama companies set up by then energy minister Konrad Mizzi and the Prime Minister’s chief of staff Keith Schembri, blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia had in her hands information from the Panama Papers trove at the International Consortium for Investigative Journalists, that also showed that Adrian Hillman had set up his own offshore Panama company.

Caruana Galizia then alleged that Schembri, owner of the Kasco Group which supplied The Times with newsprint, had used his clout to influence its editorial in the run-up to the 2013 election – which Labour went on to win, and of which Schembri was its campaign manager.

The Allied board chose to set up an internal inquiry to also find whether Hillman – who resigned immediately – had taken bribes from Schembri at the time that Allied contracted Kasco to supply Progress Press with state-of-the-art printing machinery.

Both Hillman and Schembri have denied the allegations.

On his part, Giovanni Bonello has refused to confirm whether the inquiry has already been finalised.

“The inquiry you refer to was an internal one commissioned by a private commercial company and the members conducting it are bound by strict confidentiality,” Bonello said from abroad. He did not state whether its findings will be published.

Adrian Hillman has not appeared in front of the board. “I don’t know if the report has been finalised,” he told MaltaToday.

The board of inquiry includes lawyer Kevin Dingli, former Deloitte chief executive Paul Mercieca, and PricewaterhouseCooopers senior partner Kevin Valenzia.