Tancred Tabone and Frank Sammut blocked MOBC privatisation

Former Enemalta Chairman Tancred Tabone and his consultant Frank Sammut acted to block the 2004 privatisation of the corporation’s oil storage facility when they were secretly partners in a private company that had an interest in matter, a court heard this morning. The chairman of the privatisation unit, Emanuel Ellul testified in court this morning that he had never come across a privatisation which was riddled as this with obstacles and sabotage. Eventually the process was blocked following a decision by then Finance Minister John Dalli and Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt who were acting on a 2004 report penned by Frank Sammut and which argued that it was not in the government’s interest to sell the company. Mr Sammut argued that Malta needed to hold on to MOBC because it would otherwise not be able to meet its EU obligations to have adequate reserves of oil in case of emergency. “At the time I was not able to counter this report and a political decision was taken to stop the process. But had I known then what I know now, I would have definitely managed,” Mr Ellul said. The report briefing the ministers against privatisation was the final straw in a series of obstacles that...