Blame it on Sant

 

As quoted in The Times:

Frank Sammut, who is at the centre of an alleged Enemalta corruption scandal, was a member of the fuel procurement committee between 1987 and 1998, including under Alfred Sant's Labour administration, a spokesman for the Finance Ministry told timesofmalta.com.

 

Basically the implication is that Mr Sammut was on the inside also of the Labour administration of 1996 -1998.

Then from information issued by Enemalta about the members on the Oil procurement Committee at the time it results that Alfred Sant's administration removed Mr Sammut from the line-up of the Oil Procurement Committee in 1998.  What date exactly in 1998  is not stated but I get the impression that this must have happened before as I cannot imagine that Godfrey Leone Ganado continued to Chair this Committee whilst the late Martin Bonello-Cole was Chairman of the Corporation.

26th May 1992	Mr Godfrey Leone Ganado
	Dr Franco B Vassallo
	Mr Alfred J Chetcuti
	Mr Frank Sammut
	Dr Robert A Staines
	Mr Tarcisio Mifsud (Fin Cont)
	Mr Alfred Mallia
	Head of Electricity
1998	Mr Martin E Bonello Cole
	Mr J P Fountain
	Mr Tarcisio Mifsud
	Mr Godfrey Scicluna
	Eng John Pace

What interest does the Ministry of Finance have to twist facts and instead try to shift corruption that happened under their watch on to Alfred Sant's administration??   How ridiculous can they be???

To find under whose political patronage Sammut was, it is sufficient to read the rest of the Ministry of Finance statement:

Mr Sammut, ......was an Enemalta director between 1987 and 1990.

 

He then became a consultant to the Enemalta chairman and board on petroleum and gas between 1992 and 1994.   Around the period when he allegedly received commissions from oil company Trafigura, he was consultant to the Enemalta chairman (between August 2003 and August 2004) on a one-year contract where he was tasked with "reorganising and rationalising" the storage of petroleum products at Enemalta. However, he was not responsible for buying oil.

 

Separately, Mr Sammut was also an employee of Government company Mediterranean Offshore Bunkering Company (MOBC) between 1988 and 2004.

 

GOLDEN HANDSHAKE

 

Mr Sammut was given a golden handshake of almost €100,000 when his contract was terminated, sources confirmed to timesofmalta.com.

 

Mr Sammut's contract of employment laid down that: If however, termination is due to liquidation or redundancy for whatever reason, not necessarily mentioned within this agreement, then the employer undertakes to pay the employee a terminal benefit equivalent to two-and-a-held-times his present salary or two months pay for every year of employment from date of employment 1st February 1988 worked at the last established salary of the employee."

 

These sort of employment contracts are not for any Tom, Dick or Harry.  You have to be well in the inner circle to qualify for such treatment.

 

It is clear that whilst at the time of the published commission invoices Mr Sammut was not  a formal member of the Oil Procurement Committee, he still was very much trusted by the senior management of Enemalta and their political masters.   So the suspicions get fortified that Mr Sammut, in claiming  'consultancy fees' through an offshore company, was fronting for others.  In such a case the whole thing gets more serious, much more serious!

 

The more answers are given, the more questions arise.