Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/449474
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 21 JANUARY 2015 3 News "Prosit Man. It was my pleasure" – Farrugia to Mizzi CONTINUES FROM PAGE 1 George Farrugia's patronage of Enemalta employees seems to have been widespread. What is significant is that these emails shed new light on new evidence and, crucially, re- fer to 2008 and 2009. The Presidential pardon granted to Farrugia was conditional on his telling the truth. But Farrugia's testimony to the police went only as far as 2005, because he had no details to give after that, he told police. The emails being shown to- day refer to 2008. On Sunday police arrested and interrogated Godwin Sant, who served as Director for Energy Regu- lation and later as chief officer en- ergy policy at the Malta Resources Authority under the previous ad- ministration, and accepted a gift sent to him by Trafigura at Farru- gia's request. Until yesterday morning Godwin Sant was still under arrest at the Floriana police headquarters. Sant was a very senior director at the state regulatory body that was responsible for overseeing that fuel specifications of imported oil were according to strict tender require- ments. Throughout his tenure at the MRA, he kept a close relationship with George Farrugia and accepted the gift from Trafigura. MaltaToday has revealed that in April 2009, Farrugia made arrange- ments for Godwin Sant to receive football tickets in the UK from Trafig- ura as a gift. Apart from the suspicious informality, the very fact that a regu- lator was keeping close contact with the Trafigura and Totsa agent, raises many serious questions. One of the more important elements in the tendering process, which was completely ignored in police inves- tigations, was the job of the Malta Resources Authority in serving as an overseer in the fuel specifications of the imported oil. The MRA would subcontract a private company to take samples of the oil and report to it the findings it made. Tenderers such as Trafigura were expected to respect the speci- fications, but the final word about whether the specifications were being adhered to was that of the Malta Re- sources Authority. When specifications were found to be too high in sulphur content, the oil company was expected to address the matter by blending the oil – a proce- dure that was very expensive to carry out and considered to be a huge ex- pense by the oil companies. Godwin Sant's situation placed him in the sensitive position of overseeing that the fuel specifications protocol was adhered to. And in many cases, Trafigura and other companies de- pended on the verification of the spec- ifications to make a sale. Trafigura was renowned for being off the mark in fuel specifications in many other countries. At Enemalta, Trafigura won many contracts based on the presumption that it was supply- ing a low sulphur fuel. On Sunday, the day the story on this was published, George Farrugia flew out of the country with his lawyer, Siegfried Borg Cole, to Rome and is expected to return today. The police are expected to interro- gate him on his return. Sant was a very senior director at the state regulatory body that was responsible for overseeing that fuel specifications of imported oil were according to strict tender require- Throughout his tenure at the MRA, he kept a close relationship with George Farrugia and accepted The emails showing George Farrugia receiving an excel sheet on fuels stock from Emanuel Mizzi Busuttil not impressed PN leader Simon Busuttil was dismissive of the new lead in the multi-ten- tacled oil scandal and the implications the lead could have on the Presiden- tial pardon granted to George Farrugia. Speaking on the discussion programme 'Reporter' hosted by Saviour Balzan on TVM on Monday, Busuttil dismissed the news as merely a "smokescreen". It was intended to deviate attention from the fuel prices being charged at the pumps in spite of the drop in international oil prices, Busuttil argued. Emails exchanged between Mizzi and Farrugia, suggesting the oil trader could have sponsored Mizzi's MBA