Finance Minister Tonio Fenech on Friday morning requested a confrontation with George Farrugia before the Police Commissioner, during which the latter confirmed that he had never given the minister a gift.

In a press conference , Mr Fenech said that he had sought the meeting with the Commissioner and Mr Farrugia himself, in order to clear up what he called blatant lies made by Opposition MP Evarist Bartolo.

Mr Fenech also revealed a number of public documents, which he said establish the facts. These he listed as:

·        The IT audit in connection with a case involving Aikon Limited was carried out by Stephen Farrugia Sacco, brother of Labour candidate David Farrugia Sacco who had previously ruled out this possibility.

·        Labour candidate Manuel Mallia was actively involved in this audit, even though he had denied such an involvement.

·        The Audit concluded that Labour's financial controller Joe Cordina was an accomplice to the fraudulent activity in his capacity as director of Intershore Fiduciary Services Ltd.

The Minister’s conference came in the wake of allegations made by PL MPs Chris Cardona and Evarist Bartolo, who said that George Farrugia – set to turn state evidence in the oil procurement scandal - said  given Mr Fenech a ‘Maltese clock’ worth €5,000 as a gift.

Dr Fenech said that the wife of Ray Farrugia, George Farrugia's brother had given him a home-made clock, stressing that its value was far below the amount claimed by the PL – certainly not €5,000.

Mr Fenech said the clock was the product of a hobby and that he did not remember George Farrugia being present. He said his impression was that Ray Farrugia’s wife had given him the clock personally.

He said that it was amply clear from yesterday’s ‘showdown’, that George Farrugia never told the Police Commissioner that he had given Mr Fenech a gift in his original statement to the police.

Explaining the situation, Mr Fenech said George Farrugia’s sister-in-law makes these traditional clocks as a hobby and wanted to give him one because she “admired him”. Ray Farrugia had asked George to accompany him to deliver the clock, on a Saturday, Mr Fenech believes.

The gift was received before he was made responsible of energy, in 2010, when the PL said this was immediately after. Mr Fenech said he was sure of it because he still lived in an apartment in Balzan.

“The clock is just the product of a hobby and is not of quality but I appreciated it because she had made it,” he said. “It is only worth its material – wood painted in a nice and neat way”.

He said the Police Commissioner clearly stated made it clear that the allegations made by Evarist Bartolo and Chris Cardona were not leaked by anyone within the Corps because no one had ever mentioned a gift of €5,000. He said that the clock might be worth a few hundred euro. “No one lied except for Chris Cardona and Evarist Bartolo,” Mr Fenech stated.

He said that Opposition Leader Joseph Muscat lied about drugs and what he knew of the “ice-block case”, Toni Abela lied that he did not inform Joseph Muscat about the same drug case. David Farrugia Sacco and Emmanuel Mallia lied on the IT audit case in connection with Aikon Ltd, and Chris Cardona and Evarist Bartolo then lied about the gift.

Fenech files criminal complaint

As a result of the allegations, Mr Fenech filed a police complaint against Chris Cardona and Evarist Bartolo at the Hamrun police station.

“This is the type of character assassination Anglu Farrugia had spoken, which takes place within the PL,” Mr Fenech added. “Chris Cardona and Evarist Bartolo must come clean about where they got the information from, or they must retract what they said, because the truth is otherwise”.

While noting it is difficult to explain what the PL is trying to do, he believes its strategy is clear.

Over the past four weeks, the PL has been trying to imply someone from the PN, including Minister Austin Gatt into the oil procurement case but it did not manage and it now transpires that Joe Cordina is in the midst of this fraudulent activity while Manuel Mallia had pointed this out in legal correspondence.

“It is clear that contrary to what PL candidate David Farrugia Sacco declared, his brother was part of the audit. Manuel Mallia was the lawyer of the audit. This is contrary to what he said, when he went on record saying that he was only involved in a small part of it.

Mr Fenech insisted the PL is trying to be selective on what to say about the story. The documents have been available for two-and-a-half years and the PL must say why it decided to publish them now, especially when Dr Muscat said they do not play these tricks and will not be resorting to mudslinging.