Department of contracts was not involved in the Vitals Concession, former Director General confirms

Former Director General testifies against Chris Fearne, Edward Scicluna and others

By: maltatoday.com

Nov 22 2024
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Department of contracts was n

Former Director General of the Department of Contracts, Anthony Cachia, confirmed that the department was not involved in the Vitals concession since, at the time, the department would not involve itself in public service concession.

Criminal proceedings against former deputy prime minister Chris Fearne, former minister Edward Scicluna and others resumed on Friday morning before the Court presided over by Magistrate Leonard Caruana.

The sitting began with lead prosecutor Francesco Refalo informing the Court that Samuel Sittlington, a forensic expert involved in the inquiry, was not able to testify under cross-examination in person, but was ready to do so via video-conferencing. Magistrate Caruana offered the defence lawyers the choice of making oral submissions on the matter during the same sitting or written submissions within one week.

Following a short suspension of the sitting, defence lawyer Stephen Tonna Lowell informed the Court that a written response, in due time, would be preferable. This was the collective sentiment of the defence lawyers.

The first witness to take the stand was financial controller Bernice Bugeja, who informed the Court that she was asked to present invoices of payments to experts. She informed the Court that whilst certain invoices related to the case at hand, several others, around 40% off-hand, pertained to unrelated magisterial inquiries. These could not be divulged.

The Court ruled that only those relevant, ‘easily presentable’ invoices be presented.

Deputy Registrar Marbeck Spiteri also took the stand, presenting the proceedings of the civil case filed by Adrian Delia against the government, leading to the recission of the contract by the Civil Court.

At this juncture, defence lawyer Tonna Lowell argued that the prosecution should explain the probatory relevance of these proceedings. Whilst prosecution lawyer Refalo said that the evidence was being presented for the sake of completeness, the defence lawyers collectively objected, arguing that said evidence lacks probatory value and that the defendants were not involved in the civil proceedings.

Defence lawyer Franco Galea pointed out that should the prosecution decide to rest on such proof, it must indicate against which defendants such proof is to be used.

The Court accepted the admissibility of the proceedings.

Former DoC director testifies

During his testimony, former director general of the Department of Contracts Anthony Cachia told the Court that in 2016, relevant laws were introduced regarding the regulation of public service concessions.

Prior to this date, the department of contracts did not involve itself in such concessions.

The Court heard that during a meeting in 2015 attended by Cachia and others, the hospital concession was deemed to qualify as a public service concession, with the result that Projects Malta, rather than the department, involved itself in the management of the tender process.

Roderick Livori, a Planning Authority unit manager, presented information on the invoices and payments associated with the Vitals applications. Of these, the majority involved payments made by, or on behalf of, Ram Tumuluri.

Following his testimony, several witnesses on behalf of a number of banks including Bank of Valletta, APS, HSBC, BNF, Sparkasse Bank, and Lidion Bank, took the stand and submitted documents relating to the accused and their respective bank account statements.

The case was adjourned to 17 January 2025, at 9.30am, making this the last sitting for the year.