When I was a small boy, my mother used to send me to buy groceries, usually from Nina who had a one-room shop down our street.

But if Nina did not have what we wanted, I would be sent 100 metres down the next street to Ganton’s equally small, one-room grocery.

We were growing up in the same post-war years, my brothers and I and the Ganton tribe. We went to the same school, I believe, and we of course went to the same Muzew.

So a couple of weeks ago, as it happened on my birthday, I went to The Palace to hear George Farrugia, the youngest of the Ganton tribe, testify in front of the Public Accounts Committee.

This hearing has become viral. In fact, no less than 12,800 people have seen the recording.

I had bumped into George as I entered The Palace and he and his lawyer were waiting for the second lawyer, Franco Debono, who rushed in a couple of minutes later.

As we went up the winding staircase of The Palace, we spoke like a couple of acquaintances that had met in the street about humdrum things, such as why the steps are so low.

I was certainly not prepared for the flood of revelations that he unleashed that evening.

He began by coolly distributing a list of ‘gifts’ he gave out between 2010 and 2012: a painting that cost €1226 to Edmond Gatt Baldacchino, another costing €999 to Antoine Galea, a photo of Valletta costing €1135 to Karl Camilleri – and that’s just in 2010; cufflinks that cost €997 to Antoine Galea and another pair costing €1044 to William Spiteri Bailey in 2011, a Faber Castel pen costing €336 to William Spiteri Bailey and a Paul Picot watch costing €1333 to Antoine Galea in 2012 along with various hampers to Enemalta directors and members of the Fuel Procurement Committee.

All these came listed in an orderly manner, with details where they were bought from, etc. VAT was paid on all of them. And these were not the only years when gifts were handed out, but details on the previous years can only be obtained from Power Plan, the company George had with his brothers and from which he is now excluded.

“I went overboard with the gifts,” George told PAC.

Attention then veered to a more political level: the Daewoo car that the family gave to Labour (Beppe Fenech Adami asked whether it was to show appreciation for the sustained PL campaign about John Dalli and Daewoo after which John’s Garage got the agency) or whether it was barter for advertising. And the €2,000 campaign donation which the brothers gave to an Austin Gatt staffer at an election do. The question was why Austin Gatt: because he was a candidate on the first district or because he was the minister in charge of Enemalta?

Incongruously, the questions next dealt with religious affiliation. Owen Bonnici asked if George had met Alfred Mallia (one of the accused) at a healing service at Mosta and George admitted he had been at that healing service with his ailing father. He then volunteered the information that he still attends the neo-Catechumenal group at Mosta.

 Then the questioning (the questioning came mostly from the government side, as it was their turn to ask) veered to pre-2008. Now the PAC hearings are about the National Audit Office’s report on fuel procurement from 2008 to 2012 but so complex is the skein of people and events that the questioning inevitably shifted to the years now being covered by the court investigations.

What follows is my impression and perception. For a better understanding, readers may take time to view the entire sitting on parlament.mt/publicaccounts committee for the 16 December sitting.

My impression is that whatever was taking place existed before George and his brothers came on the scene. Power Plan, their joint company, cornered the market by reaching an agreement on fuel bunkering together with Trafigura and this gave it a dominant position.

At some point, George created a subsidiary company within Power Plan, Ikon Ltd (Nokia turned the other way round) which in turn, and unbeknown to his brothers, opened up an account in Switzerland and most of the monies from Trafigura began to be siphoned there.

The Farrugia brothers smelt a rat and commissioned an accountant, Joe Azzopardi, suggested by Tony Debono who had meanwhile been brought in to run Power Plan. Mr Azzopardi at first claimed George had taken as much as €45 million, but George denied this vehemently saying the figures were over-inflated. (There is another Hamrun link here: Mr Debono, who comes from Santa Venera, later married the girl next door to us)

The brothers initiated court proceedings but no sitting was ever held as an agreement was reached and the case dropped. George had to pay his brothers €0.5 million.

So far, some three hours into the sitting and after one or two breaks, the b word had not been mentioned once. It was Beppe Fenech Adami who first brought up the ‘bribery’ (tixhim) word and kept using it with regard to George Farrugia. This is a story of an 11-year long bribery, he told him.

But then Dr Fenech Adami seemed more interested in highlighting Manwel Mallia’s involvement in the case. Dr Mallia had been brought in by the brothers to supplement Dr Farrugia Sacco, the brothers’ lawyer and George freely admitted that Dr Mallia had been involved in the issue since 2010.

There, for all intents and purposes, the sitting ended. After yet another break, Dr Siegfried Borg Cole, George’s lawyer, said his client was too exhausted to answer coherently any more questions. The sitting is now adjourned till 5pm on Monday 13 January.

Reflecting on the whole sitting, I am still astounded at the contrast between the George I knew and his background, and his revelations which he admitted to without one shred of compunction or remorse. What BFA called ‘tixhim’, George called ‘xoghol’ (work).

Another cause of amazement for me was how this fraternal dissent became a national cause célèbre. We all know of other family companies that split up amid acrimony. Many end up in court. None end up in the midst of an election campaign. The Farrugia brothers seem to have had a really vicious antagonist – remember the rather mundane episode of a homemade Maltese clock made by George’s sister-in-law that was delivered to Tonio Fenech one night?

For all our shared childhood, I hold no candle on behalf of George or of his brothers. For many years they were one of the few important families in Hamrun but I never had any doubts that, just like other families, they had their good points and their bad. I admit that fuel procurement plays a huge part in the national economy especially since ours depends completely on electricity obtained through the burning of imported fuel. But I still cannot see the Farrugia family, George included, as the arch-villains or Mafia bosses they have been made to seem like.

Cleaning up this whole mess is now the duty of the country as well as ensuring that there is no repeat.

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