Former Labour Party general secretary Jimmy Magro was in court on Tuesday, pleading not guilty to corruption charges relating to a €250,000 public waste procurement tender issued by the Local Councils Association.

Charges dated back to 2014 when the association sought to embark on a pilot project involving the acquisition of an electromechanical compost machine for the processing of domestic organic waste. 

At the time, Magro was special consultant to the association, with a special focus on EU funded projects, also sitting on the board that was to select the winning bidder on the tender. 

Yet, after the tender had been awarded in August 2015, to one of two competing bidders, the failed bidder, Victor Bonello, had flagged issues of alleged corruption, telling police and anti-corruption authorities that Magro had passed on details about the tender before it was published and had proposed meeting “to discuss the commercial take into this”.

Those allegations had sparked off investigations by the Economic Crimes Unit, leading to corruption charges against the former public official. 

An overview of the police probe and the evidence gathered along the way was given in court on Tuesday by Superintendent Yvonne Farrugia, who had handled investigations since 2017 before moving away from her former role, to take up her new office as European prosecutor within the European Public Prosecutor’s Office in August.

Farrugia made reference to two reports on the corruption claims, one drawn up by the Permanent Commission Against Corruption which declared that Magro’s alleged statement proposing discussion “about the commercial take” on the project, was in breach of criminal laws.

The report was sent to the Attorney General for action to be taken accordingly. 

The second report was prepared by the internal audit and investigations department (IAID) and concluded that the tendering process was vitiated by irregularities. 

That report cited a conflict of interest, lack of transparency, failure to abide by terms of payment and also delay in delivery of the machinery.

As special consultant to the Local Councils Association (LCA) Magro had sent details about the project, with information about the rival bidder, to Victor Bonello, by way of an email dated April 24, 2014, weeks before the tender was published online. 

Bonello, was planning to submit a joint application with his associate in the tender, Disma Attard, a waste and scrap dealer on whose land, the composting machinery was to be set up.

Summoned by investigators, Bonello had recounted how, following that email, he had met Magro at the Pavi cafeteria prior to the first tender.

On that occasion, it was clear that Magro expected to get something out of the tender and had explained that he had pending tax bills and holiday expenses to cover, Bonello had told investigators. 

However, when reverting back to his then-tender associate, Attard, the latter had shrugged Bonello off saying, “If Jimmy Magro wants €10,000 he should go to work.” 

Questioned by the police, Attard later confirmed that comment, adding that Magro had never asked him personally for money. 

The application was eventually not submitted and the tender was subsequently cancelled after the winning bidder at the time had failed to honour his obligations. 

When the tender was issued a second time, Bonello had gone solo in submitting the bid but had failed to secure the tender even though his quotation was less costly, losing out to his rival bidder, Kollvik Ltd.

Farrugia explained that Bonello’s bid had been eliminated on account of the fact that he had proposed different payment terms to those laid down in the tender document. 

However, it later emerged that the successful bidder, who had failed to include supporting documents “for key experts” in his application, had been granted 48 hours to produce the necessary information, in spite of the tender document stating that “no rectification shall be allowed”. Nor was a €50 penalty payment ever traced. 
 
The IAID report also noted that the association had not respected the terms of payment, Farrugia said, pointing out that that had been the same reason for which Bonello’s bid had been eliminated.

Those terms had envisaged three payments: two of €17,287 representing 10% of total value on shipment and on installation, respectively, with the remaining 80%, €138,296, due once the machinery was up and running. 

The third payment had been effected in January 2016, with the installation being commissioned in July, six months after the company had been paid in full. 

Days after that final payment, Magro’s bank account had registered a deposit of some €12,000, Farrugia explained, giving a brief overview of Magro’s banking transactions. 

However, Magro’s defence counsel, Michael Sciriha, promptly contested that some of the amounts referred to by the prosecution witness were actually terminal benefits, supported by evidence. 

“Such innuendos are somewhat dangerous,” the lawyer remarked. 

When questioned by the police, Magro himself had denied the allegations, stating that he had only twice spoken to Bonello, long before this incident, when the latter was working in the wine industry while seeking to secure a wine donation for prospective candidates.

Supporting evidence, consisting of 23 ring files in three carton boxes, were exhibited by prosecuting Inspector Wayne Borg as Tuesday’s court hearing, presided over by magistrate Ian Farrugia, came to an end. 

The case continues in January.

Lawyers Michael and Lucio Sciriha, together with Matthew Xuereb were defence counsel. Lawyer Jason Azzopardi represented Bonello, as parte civile.