Proceedings against Anthony Debono, the husband of former Gozo Minister Giovanna Debono, continued this morning following his indictment early last month.

Mr Debono, a 59-year-old Nadur resident, faces a total of 13 charges including misappropriation of public funds, fraud, abuse of power, falsification of documents, making false declarations, committing crimes he was duty bound to prevent and preventing people from giving evidence.

As the officer-in-charge of the Gozo Ministry's Construction and Maintenance Unit (CMU), he is accused of being involved in a works-for-votes operation, through which the resources of the ministry were allegedly being used to carry out works for the benefit of individual constituents.

He was investigated after contractor Joe Cauchi turned whistleblower and accused Mr Debono of tasking him to carry out works for constituents and issuing false invoices for them. Mr Cauchi had first approached the ministry about the money he said he was owed by Mr Debono last year.

A total of 22 alleged irregular works have been flagged during investigations, and these were carried out between 2004 and the 2013 general election.

The witnesses in today's sitting are a number of police officers from the Economic Crimes Unit who were involved in the investigations, starting with Supt Paul Vassallo from the Economic Crimes Unit.

Supt Vassallo said that he and a number of his colleagues had gone to Gozo on 8 March after the Gozo Ministry's permanent secretary, John Borg, called the police to ensure that files that may be related to the case are secured.

Three sites containing documents related to the CMU's operations were indicated, including the CMU's own offices in the limits of Xewkija, the Works Department's stores in Victoria and the offices of the Projects and Development Directorate. Offices in each site were sealed to ensure that the files are not tampered with.

On 17 April, Supt Vassallo and a number of other officers also went to a quarry in the limits of Nadur owned by P&J Debono, the company which supplied the concrete in most of the alleged works. Assunta Debono handed over various documents to the police.

The testimony of Insp. Yvonne Farrugia, PC Silvio Zammit and Sgt Marcelle Mifsud largely echoed that of the superintendent.

Sgt Mifsud noted that on 2 April, she had also accompanied prosecuting inspectors Ian Abdilla and Rennie Stivala and Sgt Shaun Friggieri when Mr Cauchi took them to visit all the sites where the works related to the case took place.

After this tour, the police officers subsequently went to Mr Cauchi's home in Għarb, where he passed on a file containing 23 remittance advices.

At a later date, CMU clerk George Pace passed on all the commitment sheets related to the remittance advices presented by Mr Cauchi to the police.

During cross-examination, Dr Giglio went through a list of ministry officials and other people the police spoke to in the course of the investigations, asking the sergeant whether she knew who they were and whether they made any allegations of their own concerning Mr Debono.

In each case, save for one person she did not meet herself, Sgt Mifsud confirmed that no one else made any allegations that she is aware of.

Dr Giglio then concluded that the allegations were based on what Mr Cauchi said, before stating that if he understood correctly, the whistleblower's complaint was about the money owed.

He then asked Sgt Mifsud whether Mr Cauchi complained about not being paid while she was in his home. While she initially noted that Mr Cauchi did not speak to her directly, she did ultimately confirm that he made such a complaint in her presence.           

She also said that she first became aware that Mr Cauchi had been granted protection as a whistleblower on the same day he took her and her colleagues around Gozo.

Sgt Friggieri then testified, followed by PC Robert Zammit, who was present on one occasion when Mr Debono was arrested and questioned.

He confirmed to Dr Giglio that Mr Debono availed himself of the right to remain silent, and that he told police he did so because he felt he was being used as a political football.

After the police officers testified, Dr Giglio highlighted that his client's assets had been frozen through a temporary order, and insisted that the court should either make the order permanent or rescind it.

He stressed that the freezing of assets was only done in cases where an individual may have profited from crime, to ensure that these assets can be used as restitution should the defendant be found guilty.

But he added that in this case, the prosecution had acknowledged that Mr Debono had not personally profited from the alleged operation.

He said that he hoped that the request for the freezing of assets was not made to ensure that Mr Cauchi - an accomplice to the alleged crime - could be paid what he claimed he was owed, pointing out that the case only came about after Mr Cauchi complained about unpaid debts.

Magistrate Neville Camilleri then said that the temporary order would remain in place at least until the next sitting, as the court was not ready to give a response at this stage, but he also acknowledged that it should not remain in place indefinitely.

The case is set to continue on 26 August.