Lawrence Gonzi took a solitary decision to heal a long-standing rift in the Nationalist Party by publicly exonerating former John Dalli of any allegations pertaining to his resignation three years ago, after secret meetings between the prime minister and Dalli – meetings which were unknown to most senior Cabinet ministers and senior aides at the OPM.
But knowingly, the prime minister has opened himself up to censure from the party faithful and backbenchers. “The PM was fully aware of the political risk of his decision but he placed his conscience before that of political expediency,” senior aides told MaltaToday.
A simple e-mail from Auditor General Joseph G. Galea sent to Gonzi last week whilst still attending CHOGM in Uganda, led the prime minister to take one of his riskiest political decisions ever – because the caretaker auditor had been advised by lawyer Profs.
Ian Refalo he could not sign the audit report on the procurement of airline tickets by government ministries, because his term of office had long expired.
The long-awaited report was commissioned by the PM in July 2004 on suggestion of John Dalli himself in his resignation letter.
With the caretaker Auditor General having already served two terms, the maximum allowed by the Constitution, and therefore unable to sign the report into finalisation; and with no replacement in sight until the Opposition agrees with government’s choice, the audit report was destined to keep gathering dust – leading the prime minister to move ahead single-handedly.
He led an austere, yet solemn press conference last Thursday, surprising everyone with a public exoneration of John Dalli from any alleged wrongdoing.
And he catapulted Dalli back into the political mainstream by appointing him his senior advisor on finance and the economy.
On the other side of the ‘divide’, Dalli’s close assistants said the former minister had good reason to be elated: “John has been vindicated. This will help him tremendously when it comes to the election campaign. It is his resilience that has kept him going.”
MaltaToday has also learnt the PM warned his immediate aides that he had no intention of allowing the un-finalised auditor’s report to drag on any further, and that he would not go into an election with such a liability on his conscience.
Sources said he told aides he had “taken his decision, and that it was final” and that he would hold a press conference to clear Dalli’s name from any suspected wrongdoing.
Gonzi was visibly uncomfortable during the press conference where journalists quizzed him over why he had buried a three-and-a-half-year political time bomb that haunted his administration ever since becoming premier.
Senior aides also accused Opposition leader Alfred Sant of being “diabolical” in his reluctance to appoint a new Auditor General in agreement with Gonzi, who has forwarded two names for the post already. This request appears to have been ignored by the Labour leader.
Dalli’s resignation was aggravated by a private investigator’s report alleging corruption in the award of the contract for Mater Dei’s medical equipment. The report was commissioned by Dutch firm Simed and given to Gonzi some time between 23 May 2004 and 11 June 2004. The report alleged Dalli’s brother Sebastian, and the daughter of Director of Contracts Joseph Spiteri, had collected kickbacks from Italian firm Inso for the award of the multi-million contract.
The OPM contends it was handed a report on 11 June when Gonzi met a Simed delegation – Joseph Fenech, Raphael Fenech Adami, and Frank Farrugia – at Castille; but the lawyer for Simed, Raphael Fenech Adami, believes he handed the report to a personal secretary of Gonzi’s a couple of weeks before the 11 June meeting. But OPM sources insist that despite meeting Simed on 11 June, Dr Gonzi had asked the Simed reps for proof which they presented after Dalli offered his resignation letter on 29 June.
And on 15 July, Gonzi called Commissioner of Police John Rizzo to Castille to investigate the report – almost a fortnight after Dalli resignation was announced on 3 July.
Dalli claims that prior to his resignation, Gonzi told him he “couldn’t have a minister in his Cabinet under investigation”.