An adjudication committee member who, a bidder claims, said he would not give a tender costing €250,000 and get nothing in return, told the Commission Against Corruption he did not need money because, in 2014, he had an income of about €100,000.

This emerges from a report by the commission that was tabled in Parliament on Wednesday.

Jimmy Magro.

Concluding that this was “a case of corruption or an attempt of corruption” by a public officer that should be ultimately decided by a court, the commission noted that it was the tenderer himself, Victor Bonello, who had reported the case first to the government and eventually to the commission.

The case revolved around a 2014 tender, involving EU funds, for the commissioning of a compost industrial machine costing over €250,000.

Mr Bonello told the commission, headed by Judge Lawrence Quintano that, after reporting the case that Jimmy Magro, a member of the adjudicating committee, had asked him for money, the head of the civil service, Mario Cutajar, had asked him to wait until an internal investigation was over. However, Mr Bonello said he later wrote to the commission repeating what he had already told Mr Cutajar.

READ: Commission 'morally convinced' Jimmy Magro sought money

Mr Bonello said Mr Magro had given him details about the tender before it was published and asked him to meet “to discuss our commercial take in this”. Mr Bonello met Mr Magro, a former general secretary of the Labour Party, twice at the Pavi supermarket café at Qormi in the second half of 2014. He told the commission that, at the first meeting, Mr Magro told him he expected to make some money from the tender, saying he had just returned from an expensive holiday in Alsace, France and owed money to the Inland Revenue Department. He also complained he had “a miserable pay”.

If Jimmy Magro needs money and wants to go on holiday, he should work, as we do

Mr Bonello recounted that he told Mr Magro he first needed to speak to his associate in the tender, Disma Attard, who owned a petrol station in Żabbar.

According to Mr Bonello, Mr Attard did not want to pay any money for the tender and told him to send Mr Magro to hell. “If Jimmy Magro needs money and wants to go on holiday, he should work, as we do, and will then be able to afford doing what he likes,” Mr Attard exclaimed.

Informing Mr Magro of Mr Attard’s reaction during another meeting at the Pavi coffee shop, Mr Magro reacted: “Fine, so I will give you, instead of Paul Xuereb, a tender costing quarter of a million euros and I will make nothing out of it. Let me speak to Disma myself.”

Two days later, Mr Bonello said, Mr Attard informed him that Mr Magro – “that greedy pig” – had gone to see him accompanied by Chris Cassar, who had supplied King Long buses to Arriva. Mr Magro said Mr Attard should forget Mr Bonello and instead work with Mr Cassar. Mr Attard did not want any of that, Mr Bonbello said.

Testifying before the commission, Mr Attard was at first was reluctant to confirm Mr Bonello’s evidence but he later admitted he had met Mr Magro about the tender and had called him “a greedy pig” for asking for money.

The commission said Mr Magro initially denied ever meeting Mr Bonello or asking for money. However, he then confessed he had met the bidder at Pavi, although “on a different issue”.

When confronted with an e-mail in which he had asked for a “commercial take”, Mr Magro would not reply and asked for a suspension of the hearing.

At another hearing a few weeks later, Mr Magro said that by a take he was referring to the “commercial viability” of the project. He told the commission he did not need to ask for money because, in 2014, he had an income of about €100,000 and could pay for his holidays himself.

Mr Magro had been engaged by the Labour government as executive chairman of Major Projects Coordinating Agency, a new entity within Malta Enterprise.

The commission concluded that Mr Magro’s evidence was not convincing and that Mr Bonello’s claims about the demand for money was corroborated.

It concluded that this was a case of corruption but reserved final judgment to be made by the court. The commission’s conclusions have been passed on to the police for their consideration.

Justice Minister Owen Bonnici has said the government would be taking action against Mr Magro through the Public Service Commission. The police are investigating and Mr Magro is expected to face charges in court.

ivan.camilleri@timesofmalta.com