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Matthew Vella
Simed International’s quest for more revelations on the controversial decision that saw the Dutch company lose out on the multi-million Liri tender for the supply of medical equipment at the Mater Dei hospital remains unrequited. Hundreds of miles away from their Utrecht headquarters, Joe Zahra, the man they trusted with revealing the truth behind the Mater Dei tender is facing charges of falsifying information in his private investigation for the healthcare company.
But managing director Sietse Zoodsma expresses bewilderment at the outcome of what should have been a quest for truth, when 50-year old Zahra promised Zoodsma he was ready to take an oath in front of a Court.
“My comments are that right at this moment, I really do not know what to think in this whole affair and what to comment. When Mr Zahra presented his report to me it was not only me present in this meeting, but also our Maltese lawyers, business partners and agent. Mr Zahra repeatedly confirmed that he could provide the proof of what he had written and that he was prepared to make a sworn statement in front of a Maltese Magistrate that all he had written was true.”
A former police sergeant who turned to private investigation, and for the past few years a consultant to the Where’s Everybody production house, Joe Zahra compiled a report which traced an alleged triangle of corruption featuring the Director of Contracts Joseph Spiteri, his daughter Claudine Cassar, and Bastjan Dalli, brother to Nationalist MP John Dalli. Allegedly all three were involved in meetings with INSO operations director Marco Fontanelli in Naples and Florence, with mention being made of EUR2.3 million being stashed in a Verona bank through a swift transaction from London on 30 December, 2003.
Under investigation by Police Commissioner John Rizzo however, Zahra’s concoction did not stand up to the test of truth, landing him in Court for presenting false evidence.
If indeed Zahra had been so cocksure of his revelations, which he presented in just three pages to the Simed directors, it has left Sietse Zoodsma puzzled at Zahra’s consent to have the report shown to Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi: “We indicated to him that this report would not end up in the cupboard, but would be presented to the Maltese Government for further investigation. Mr Zahra told us there was no problem about that.”
But that could as well confirm Zahra’s documented foolhardiness, especially when the reward comes in the form of a cut of three per cent of the value of the Mater Dei contract had the investigation brought about a revocation of the INSO decision.
Joe Zahra entered the world of private investigation in the early nineties, establishing ‘Professional Private Investigation Agency’ in a Valletta office in Regency House. In 1995 he was revealed to have sent nothing less than Italy’s mani pulite prosecutions haywire, when he sent false information to Italian magazine Panorama. The information, documenting the offshore interests of Massimo Bassi’s Sapri Broker in Malta, was strewn with money laundering transactions reaching up to Hong Kong. Rome Magistrate Gianfranco Mantelli took up the information, only to realise six months later that Zahra had misled the entire investigation. Questions were asked by both the prosecution and the magazine: why had Zahra derailed the investigation?
And that is a question which might as well be asked by Sietse Zoodsma. Joe Zahra’s reactions to Zoodsma’s statements is a simple ‘no comment,’ as has been his standard reply to all inquires by MaltaToday on the case.
According to Zoodsma, Zahra promised he would provide proof of his claims, a fact corroborated in police investigations. Zahra told Zoodsma it would cost Simed Lm1 million to uncover his sources, a ploy which police investigators said would have served to discourage Simed from getting Zahra to uncover sources which in fact did not exist.
Zoodsma however is still unsure about whether to believe Zahra or not. Convinced of the suspicious manner in which INSO scooped the tender, Zoodsma is still of the opinion that irregularities throughout the process have to be resolved through a public inquiry. He harks back at when both INSO and Simed had been ruled out of the tender process after the Foundation for Medical Supplies recommended German company Hospitalia. When the Director of Contracts overruled the recommendation, instead favouring INSO, both Hospitalia and Simed appealed. Hospitalia was subsequently disqualified for breaching tender conditions. The Contracts Appeals Board recommended that Simed be awarded the contract provided that the firm presents certain clarifications in its tender.
“No process of clarification took place after our submission and the Director of Contracts recommended the Minister [John Dalli] to award the contract to INSO, in spite of all the breaches of the tender document,” Zoodsma claims. “I could never believe that so many details in Mr Zahra’s report could have been fabricated. The whole process of the tender and the final award created serious suspicions […] If it now appears he made it all up, I can only say that apparently Mr Zahra has a very lively imagination indeed. On the other hand however I fail to understand why he would go this far, knowing full well that this would end up in the hands of the police for criminal investigation if what he said was not correct. If what he said is proved to be false, let justice be done with him.”
According to Zoodsma, the report was only handed to Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, but the Dutch government is informed about the existence of the report and that it was handed to Gonzi, who was asked by Simed to start an investigation to verify Zahra’s findings.
Zoodsma says there was no further correspondence on the matter with the Dutch government, which still leaves it unclear whether any communication on the matter took place between The Hague and Castille.
“The seriousness of the report warranted that it was only handed over to the Maltese Prime Minister, who himself would want to know the truth and investigate the matter both through the police and or official public enquiry,” he added.
matthew@newsworksltd.com
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