Oil buying ‘used to be chairman’s territory’

Enemalta’s fuel purchasing was “totally the domain of the chairman”, former members of the Fuel Procurement Committee said yesterday following last week’s damning report by the Auditor General. “It was no secret at Enemalta that the fuel procurement process was the chairman’s domain,” one former committee member told Times of Malta on condition of anonymity. “It is true that the bids received used to be decided by us (the committee) but it was a chairman-driven initiative. It was the chairman who used to receive the bids on his own e-mail address and it was his office that used to call the shots, even about when the committee would meet to make decisions.” In its report last week, the National Audit Office slammed Enemalta’s fuel procurement practices between 2008 and 2010, when Alex Tranter was chairman of the corporation. The report raised serious questions about lack of policy, inexplicable decisions and lack of proper records showing who took decisions. The police have launched an investigation following a Government request. Speaking to this newspaper anonymously yesterday, former members of the committee confirmed that, until Tonio Fenech became politically responsible for...