Matthew Vella The journalist Godfrey Grima has stood by claims he made during television programme Wicc Imb Wicc last Monday, that Finance Minister Tonio Fenech never asked the prime minister for clearance to take a private trip to Spain.
“One of the circumstances not yet explained is whether he told the prime minister he was going aboard the private jet of these two businessmen [Joe Gasan and George Fenech] to watch Arsenal play. My information is that no, he did not tell him,” Grima told presenter Julia Farrugia.
Grima has stood by his claims, when contacted by MaltaToday, saying that his sources had informed him that the minister did not inform Lawrence Gonzi of the trip.
“The prime minister got to know about the trip by an anonymous letter,” Grima said on Wicc Imb Wicc.
“If this is really the case, this is a resigning matter… in the context of the ongoing debate on the gambling law, and with these two men involved in the industry; in the circumstance that there is a tender that will probably go to one of these men – the dockyard or shipbuilding – in this context, if the minister did not inform the prime minister of this trip, then it is a resigning matter,” Grima stated.
Tonio Fenech has claimed that he asked Gonzi for permission to accept a trip aboard the private jet of George Fenech, chairman of the Tumas Group, to watch Arsenal play in Spain with tickets provided by Joe Gasan, chairman of the Gasan group of companies, along with both businessmen.
When MaltaToday broke the story, it reported that it was Nationalist MP Franco Debono who asked whether Fenech had a “conflict of interest” by accepting this invitation, during a parliamentary group meeting at Villa Francia.
Fenech subsequently claimed that the matter was raised by Gonzi himself, who brought up an anonymous letter that was attempting to blackmail Fenech over the trip.
Lawrence Gonzi’s defence of his minister extended to implying that Fenech was being blackmailed by means of an ‘anonymous letter’ which referred to another (unconfirmed) trip on George Fenech’s jet, this time to watch Wimbledon; and that this letter was brought up by the Prime Minister himself at last Saturday’s parliamentary group meeting.
However, Nationalist MPs privately claimed they had no recollection whatsoever of this letter being discussed at the Villa Francia meeting.
Fenech has been accused of breaching the Code of Ethics for Ministers, which states that ministers should not accept gifts or services “such as might be deemed to create an obligation, real or imaginary” and that they must report any gifts they are offered, or any travel plans, to the prime minister.
Fenech was accompanied on this trip by his young son and nephew, and by George Fenech, the owner of two casinos: the Oracle in Qawra, and the Portomaso casino in St Julian’s. Gonzi gave Fenech his full permission to participate on the freebie flight – paid for by the entrepreneurs, at least one of whom still has a direct interest in a sector that the same finance minister was shortly to reform – the gambling industry.
Furthermore, his ‘fatal flight’ to Spain took place only two months before the expiry of the 10-year lease of the Dragonara Casino in St Julian’s – until last June, managed by French-owned group Barrière-Accor. Apart from already being a leading player in the local gaming sector, Fenech is currently one of the bidders for the same Dragonara lease tender.
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