Former Enemalta Chief Financial Officer Pippo Pandolfino today continued to testify before the Public Accounts Committee, currently debating the Auditor General’s report on Enemalta’s fuel procurement, where it emerged that he accepted seasonal gifts of low value from fuel suppliers but did so as part of his work contract.

He said that he occupied the role of CEO at Enemalta for a temporary period while serving his official position as CFO, the role of which involved customer-supplier relations.

Mr Pandolfino also told the committee that he met up with Totsa local representative George Farrugia more often than other fuel suppliers. Mr Farrugia owned Power Plan, Totsa’s trading arm.

“This,” he explained, “happened because Totsa always brought Mr Farrugia along with them to the meetings”.

Mr Farrugia is one of the persons at the heart of the oil procurement commissions’ scandal. He was granted a ‘conditional’ presidential pardon in return for State evidence in the Enemalta oil procurement case.

Mr Pandolfino denied ever meeting former minister Austin Gatt, who at the time was minister responsible for Enemalta, socially or once he left Enemalta. He also denied meeting former Enemalta CEO David Spiteri Gingell recently.

Mr Pandolfino, author of the “scribbled” notes, occupied the post of CFO between 1 March 2004 and 1 March 2009.

During the last PAC hearing, held on 20 September, Mr Pandolfino said that the two instances where the National Audit Office concluded, in the absence of a proper paper trail, that bids that were not the cheapest were chosen by the Fuel Procurement Committee in fact were the cheapest.

At the beginning of today's hearing, PAC chairman Jason Azzopardi asked Mr Pandolfino if he ever met any fuel supplier representatives, lobbyists or agents while employed at Enemalta.

Mr Pandolfino said that he had met various representatives of fuel suppliers, at times one-to-one and some in the presence of others. He said he played the role of CEO while CFO until a CEO was appointed.

Asked if he ever met with such persons to discuss “open” tenders, Mr Pandolfino replied in the negative.

Regarding the seasonal gifts he received and accepted, he emphasised that he never accepted any valuable items or cash.

He said that accepting “low-value” seasonal gifts was part of his contract.

Labour MP Owen Bonnici claimed that the minute the "minutes" had stopped being taken by the Fuel Procurement Committee within Enemalta, corrupt practices in the purchases of oil started taking place. The AG report states that the state of the minutes found were "abysmal".

Mr Pandolfino said he went to work as CEO at Island Bunker Oils Ltd after having left his job at Enemalta, the role of which he still occupies today.

Mr Pandolfino said that after leaving Enemalta he started working within days with Island Bunker Oils Ltd following a request by former Enemalta chairman Tancred Tabone.

According to the Auditor General's report, IBOI was awarded a diesel barge transfer contract for a period of six months, the contract being extended for another 26 months. Mr Pandolfino said that he never got involved in Enemalta’s decisions and therefore could not comment on why the privatisation of the barge transfer services hadn’t taken place when asked by Dr Azzopardi why the privatisation of the barge transfer hadn’t taken place.

Dr Bonnici meanwhile questioned Mr Pandolfino if he was aware MrTabone was behind IBOL, and if IBOL existed during the time Mr Tabone was chairman at Enemalta and if he knew whether Mr Tabone had been approached back to set up a company while acting as Enemalta’s chairman.

Mr Pandolfino said that he knew who Tancred Tabone was but not on a personal basis. “I knew he was the owner of Forestals for instance but didn’t know him in the sense that I would not stop to speak to him if I came across him in the street,” he said.

Asked by Dr Bonnici when his wife’s sister started working with Mr Tabone as his secretary, Mr Pandolfino said he didn’t know exactly when.

Evidently, Dr Bonnici didn’t seem too convinced that Mr Pandolfino wasn’t aware of certain details.

Asked if his wife ever worked at Virtu Ferries, Mr Pandolfino said she never ever worked there. One of the directors of Virtu Ferries Ltd Francis Portelli had been charged in connection with the oil procurement scandal.

Dr Bonnici told Mr Pandolfino how he was not aware that Mr Tabone was the brains behind IBOL when his wife’s sister worked for Mr Tabone.

Mr Pandolfino said it was not in his interest to know such details.

Turning to Frank Sammut, Dr Bonnici asked Mr Pandolfino if he was aware that Mr Sammut had fallen out with his business partners and was given 500,000 euros in cash to pull out of the company.

Mr Pandolfino said he wasn’t aware of these details either.

Mr Sammut, formerly the CEO of Enemalta's bunkering arm Malta Oil Bunkering Corporation, had been paid €500,000 by business partners Tancred Tabone, Francis Portelli and Anthony Sammut to leave their private company. This emerged from other past PAC hearings.

Island Bunker Oils Ltd (IBOL) was set up in 2002 by Mr Sammut, with Mr Tabone then Enemalta chairman as a silent partner, together with Mr Portelli and Mr Sammut.

Before 2002, bunkering services were carried out by MOBC.

Petrochemist Sammut had also been arraigned in court and accused of corruption in the oil procurement scandal.

Mr Pandolfino said he had no idea how MOBC operated when questioned about the termination of bunkering services at MOBC back in 2002.

Dr Bonnici asked Mr Pandolfino about Mr Sammut's involvement in IBOL which saw Mr Pandolfino state that he learnt about the issue after it was revealed in the media in the same way he became aware that after leaving MOBC, Mr Sammut joined IBOL.

Dr Bonnici said that the auditor general’s report harshly criticised the diesel barge transfer. Asked what he thought about the issue, Mr Pandolfino said: “Island Bankers had a contract with Enemalta; the contract was extended by Enemalta for a few months or a couple of years, am not too sure.

“Island Bunkers won the contract after submitting a tender,” he emphasised.

He said he could have been in Enemalta’s tender sub-committee when a public tender was awarded to Island Bunkering. At the time, Mr Pandolfino hadn’t joined Island Bunkering yet and was employed at Enemalta as CFO.

According to Mr Pandolfino, former Enemalta chairman Alex Tranter and Mr Pandolfino remained friends, meeting socially on a regular basis, and this year they travelled twice before the AG’s report was published.

“Since the report was published, we met and discussed the NAO report,” he said.

Asked about the laptop he had admitted to taken with him when he left Enemalta, Mr Pandolfino said he did so to make sure a smooth handover took place and in case his successor required any information on the work carried out by him at Enemalta.

During the last PAC meeting, Mr Pandolfino had said that the laptop contained sensitive information.

Mr Pandolfino meanwhile told PAC that he was relieved when he learnt, after having read in a newspaper, that the oil scandal did not take place during the time he worked at Enemalta. He said his father had called him that a particular newspaper had broken the oil scandal story.