Former GRTU vice president and prime mover behind the Pharmacy of Your Choice Scheme, Mario Debono stands accused of importing counterfeit medicines in 2006. Gerald Fenech analyses Debono’s actions and statements in the years leading up to his self-suspension from the GRTU council
Mario Debono, currently facing criminal charges on the importation of fake medicines, is certainly no stranger to controversy.
Well known in pharmaceutical and business circles, the GRTU vice president’s name reached wider circulation in connection with a spate of hate mail messages he had sent to Labour Party officials – in particular Joseph Muscat, then still an MEP – in 2002. These messages included such statements as “Joseph ‘Goebbels’ Muscat” and a reference to Labour commentator Manwel Cuschieri as a ‘maqjel’ (pigsty).
Debono pleaded guilty to sending offensive emails in 2007.
Debono is also seen as a key player in the brokering of the Pharmacy of Your Choice Scheme with the pharmacy sector: an agreement between government and pharmacists which he proudly signed on behalf of the GRTU just days before the 2008 General Election, when already under a magisterial inquiry over allegations of importing counterfeit medicines.
Debono’s company Surgiquip was eventually charged last week with the importation of 400 packets of the heart drug Plavix in 2006. The magisterial inquiry into the case ended in October 2008, and concluded that no local law had been breached. However, following a number of Parliamentary Questions asked by Labour MP Michael Falzon, the case eventually to come to court anyway.
The first PQ was asked in April 2009 to Minister John Dalli, who eventually passed the buck over to Justice Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici.
On 26 May 2009 Mifsud Bonnici replied that the magisterial inquiry had concluded that the consignment was not for the local market. However, in a strange twist on 21 October 2009, the same minister informed the House that the case had been taken up by the Medicines Authority, which eventually asked the police to press criminal charges.
Thus a full year passed before Debono was eventually put under criminal investigation.
Replying to questions sent by Malta Today on why it had taken so long to charge Debono and the other company directors, the Community and Media Relations Unit of the police explained that “criminal proceedings can only be undertaken after administrative proceedings by the Medicines Authority are taken against suspect, and same does not comply to these administrative proceedings”.
The police spokesperson further explained that in this particular case, the administrative proceedings were undertaken in November 2009 and that the three company directors have been charged with breaches of Intellectual Property Rights as well as breaches of the Medicines Act.
“After the lapse of the 21-day period to comply with the administrative proceedings, suspects were still contesting the allegations against them and hence criminal charges were issued in December 2009. Had the Police issued charges on Intellectual Property Rights only, prior to the exhaustion of the above mentioned the administrative proceedings under the Medicines Act, the case would have been hampered with a ‘ne bis inidem’ (double jeopardy) issue, especially if the Intellectual Property Rights criminal case would have already been decided and the suspects would have not complied to the administrative penalties imposed, as was in this case”.
It was recently revealed that Suriquip won a tender totalling some €200,000, at a time when he was under police investigation over the fake medicine importation case.
Asked whether he was in agreement that a company which is under criminal investigation can still bid successfully for tenders, a spokesperson for Health Minister Joe Cassar said that: “The Department of Health proceeds in full conformance with the Department of Contracts regulations”; adding that “the Minister is not involved in the procurement processes of individual tenders”.
It appears that Debono was also involved at some level with the Pharmacy of Your Choice Scheme. In 2007, Debono had sent out a confidential email boasting about the effective ban on new pharmacy licences, which placed him and his members at a competitive advantage (Debono is a shareholder in three pharmacies).
This scheme is now under threat, after the owner of a pharmacy under the arches in Freedom Square applied for a temporary permit for the relocation to his own premises in Republic Street on account of the City Gate project.
Reginald Fava, owner of Chemimart Ltd, applied for the licence last week after preliminary work on the controversial project got under way. However, other Republic Street pharmacy owners immediately objected, citing a law against having more than one pharmacy in close proximity with others in the same locality.
The pharmacy owners are threatening to pull of the POYC scheme if Fava is given a licence to operate on Republic Street.
In a case ironically heard on the same day as Debono’s charges were filed, Fava was in fact granted the right to re-locate his pharmacy to his other outlet in Valletta. Undeterred, Republic Street pharmacy owners have appealed the judgement, with the Chamber of Pharmacists calling the decision ‘illegal’.
Debono has repeatedly received the full backing of top GRTU officials such as president Paul Abela and director-general Vince Farrugia. In the latest GRTU newsletter, journalists were even told to ‘shut up’ about the case. Nonetheless, Debono decided to suspend himself from the GRTU council when his case went to court.
Debono’s case has meanwhile been deferred to May.
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