A ship master who was suspended after highlighting security flaws on the Gozo Channel ferries has accused Nationalist Party whip David Agius of putting "strong" political pressure on him to promote an employee.
"When I was working in management, I faced strong political pressure from government MP David Agius to promote a chief officer to captain even though it was clear in an interview held 18 months earlier that he wasn't competent for that post," Mario Grech said in an affidavit.
Earlier in the week, Capt. Grech filed the affidavit as evidence in a civil lawsuit against Gozo Channel contesting his suspension on full pay.
Mr Agius denied any political pressure and said he only made one phone call of "verification".
He told The Sunday Times that the chief officer was one of his constituents from Attard who claimed he was not offered the job because someone did not like him.
"I just made a phone call to get the captain's side of the story, as I always do in such circumstances. I can't just rely on what the constituent tells me. The captain told me a report was drawn up and that they acted according to the report - so it ended there."
Mr Agius said he testified to this effect before the board of inquiry, denying any form of political pressure.
He added, however, that his constituent was recently promoted to captain.
"It happened naturally," Mr Agius said, stressing that he only ever made one phone call.
Capt. Grech filed the lawsuit after Gozo Channel suspended him last September - one day after he filed a judicial protest listing a number of flaws such as lack of safety drills, shortage of life-saving equipment and contamination of the ferries' water tanks with potentially-deadly legionella bacteria.
He is also trying to include as evidence an inquiry drawn up by an independent government board, appointed by Finance Minister Tonio Fenech. However, Mr Fenech filed a judicial application last week requesting that the inquiry not be included until it is tabled in Parliament, as it is a "privileged document" and includes confidential information about other people "who were not involved in the case".
In the affidavit, Capt. Grech said he felt discriminated against and "victimised" because he had raised these alleged failings with the company's CEO and chairman several times over the years.
However, nothing happened and, instead, he was excluded from the Sunday and public holiday rosters leading to a loss of almost one-third of his €30,000 annual salary.
In his affidavit, Capt. Grech said he was discriminated against and "victimised" because he had raised these failings with the company's CEO and chairman several times.
When testifying, Capt. Grech insisted he was right in raising these claims adding that he never expected to be suspended.
He also said his fellow captains were breaching international maritime security measures because they could not check whether all the required safety drills had been carried out by the crew or safely tie down heavy vehicles because there were no harnesses.
Gozo Channel has rebutted the allegations, saying that, among other things, it had dealt with the legionella case in line with procedure. However, one of Capt. Grech's claims was proved by a court who found a crewman guilty of using forged certificates to secure a promotion.