Gozo Minister Anton Refalo met a contractor on the ‘works for votes’ scandal last year but walked out when the whistleblower started spilling the beans because he felt his presence was inappropriate, a magistrate was told yesterday.
Gozo Ministry permanent secretary John Borg said this when testifying in the compilation of evidence against Anthony Debono, 59, from Nadur.
Mr Debono, the husband of former Gozo minister Giovanna Debono, is being charged with fraud, misappropriation and the falsification of documents, among others. The prosecution alleges that the cases, involving 22 sites, happened between 2006 and March 2013, when Mr Debono was the officer in charge of the construction and maintenance unit within the Gozo Ministry, headed by his wife.
Mr Borg said the police were called in to investigate five months after the contractor met the minister on March 8 of this year, the same day the case was exposed by Malta Today. After alerting the principal permanent secretary, the ministry decided to flag the case to the police, who, later that day, turned up at the ministry and seized several documents.
Mr Borg testified that, last October, contractor Joe Cauchi had asked to meet him over pending bills for works carried out up to March 2013, when there was a change of government.
Previously, Mr Cauchi had raised the case with the Director of Works, Joseph Portelli, through an e-mail.
On October 17, 2014, the contractor met Mr Borg and Dr Refalo. Mr Borg said that when Mr Cauchi was about to give details on the works he said were carried out in private properties, Dr Refalo said he did not wish to be present and the meeting continued in a different room in the ministry.
The witness continued that during the meeting Mr Cauchi floated the idea of seeking protection through the Whistleblower Act and said he was owed about €50,000 – “75 per cent of which was related to private works”. Mr Cauchi said payments for the works would be made by the accused through false invoices.
He was owed about €50,000 – 75 per cent of which was related to private works
After the meeting, Mr Borg said he tried to verify some of the facts and sought advice from the Office of the Prime Minister and the office of the whistleblowing reporting officer in the Justice Ministry. However, when he became aware that Mr Cauchi had also approached the whistleblowing reporting officer in Malta, he did not follow up the case.
The ministry’s director general of operations, Mario Calleja, testified that the construction and maintenance unit was part of the directorate of projects and development and its remit included maintaining rubble walls, retaining walls, farm access roads and various works for local councils.
The court declared there was enough evidence for the accused to be placed under a bill of indictment. It also noted that, in the previous sitting, the defence had already declared it had no intention of challenging the indictment.
The court also ordered the Police Commissioner to provide the defence with a list of witnesses the prosecution was expected to summon and information on why they were being heard.
The defence last week asked for a copy of the police file, which the prosecution objected to. A decision by the Attorney General on the matter is pending.
The case was put off until July 7.
The PN said in a statement that the Prime Minister should ask Dr Refalo why he had kept the case hidden from the police for five months before a proper investigation was launched in March.
In reply, Dr Refalo said he took the case through the proper channels, dealing with the whistleblower act. The Opposition leader had not done the same and was now attacking the whistleblower.