Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1122784
maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 29 MAY 2019 Another step towards the introduction of the helicopter service between Malta and Gozo. A public call for operations has been issued. MINISTERU GĦAT-TURIŻMU MINISTRY FOR TOURISM YANNICK PACE THE Attorney General has re- fused a request by the courts for his office to issue a moni- toring order to monitor bank accounts linked to a number of companies owned by Ram Tumuluri, a former director of Vitals Global Healthcare (VGH). Last Friday, The Shift News reported that Tumuluri was shutting down nine compa- nies incorporated in Jersey. On the same day, Repubblika filed a court application ask- ing magistrate Claire Stafrace Zammit request that the AG issue a European Investigative Order. In a decree delivered by the magistrate on Friday evening, the court ordered that Re- pubblika's application be no- tified to the Attorney General so that "all necessary steps" are taken to satisfy the moni- toring order. The court reserved pro- nouncing itself on the rest of Repubblika's request, namely for a European Investigative Order to be issued, to a later date. Responding to the Court to- day, the AG said that the law gave him the power to order a monitoring order on a bank, but he also pointed to Arti- cle 91(3) of the constitution, which states that the Attorney General "shall not be subject to the direction or control of any other person or author- ity". He goes on to tell the court that it did not have the legal competence to decree on the application filed on Friday, given that its role at this stage is to determine whether the prerequisites for an inquiry are present. Finally, the AG said that from the information avail- able there was no evidence to suggest that the "suspects" in the case had "started, or giv- en orders for the cleaning or elimination of evidence". Earlier this month, the NGO filed a court application ask- ing for a magisterial inquiry. It said that its application clearly showed that ministers Edward Scicluna, Chris Cardona and Konrad Mizzi had given the group of investors behind VGH and unfair advantage in the contract's selection pro- cess. Repubblika said that de- spite there being abundant evidence of wrongdoing, the country's institutions had not done their job and had taken no action about "serious sus- picions of corruption and money laundering". It said it had requested an in- quiry to preserve evidence, in the absence of any investiga- tion by the police, adding that the fact that it had decided to go request an inquiry itself didn't absolve the police of their responsibility to inves- tigate. Attorney General refuses request for monitoring of VGH-linked bank accounts Attorney General Peter Grech