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MMA officials arrested and arrainged

440 out of 450 mariners questioned bribed to obtain a licence

maltastar.com team 26 June 2007

Two Malta Maritime Authority officials were arrested and arraigned in Court on Tuesday charged with taking bribes to issue false mariners’ licences. John Farrugia, 60, who works as Small Ships Administrator at the MMA and Ivan Muscat, 30, clerk in the same department are also being accused of corruption and falsifying official MCAST certificates.   Testifying in Court prosecuting inspector Ian Abdilla said that out of the 450 persons who were interviewed by the police on suspicion that they own a false mariners’ licence, only ten did not pay for their licence. That means that out of the 450 persons interviewed, 440 persons had to bribe MMA official to bypass regulatory obligations to obtain their licence. More persons are still being interviewed. Accused not released The lawyers defending Farrugia and Muscat asked the Court presided by Magistrate Silvio Meli to release the MMA officials because of a clean police record and because Ivan Muscat’s wife is pregnant.   But Dr Meli did not grant provisional release of the accused because of the gravity of the case. The MMA bribery scandal has embarrassed the government especially the minister responsible for the authority Censu Galea who called for police investigations only after Labour whip Joe Mizzi exposed the abuse in parliament.   Mr Mizzi also said in parliament that John Farrugia was an intimate friend to Censu Galea and that the minister had on at least one occasion intervened to overrule MMA superiors’ decision to remove Farrugia from office after suspecting foul play. On Monday Joe Mizzi once again reiterated the claim adding that an occasion the authority had ordered for a container for the translocation of Mr Farrugia’s office, but after a decision was overruled, the container had to be sent back and no transfer took place. Joe Mizzi also said in parliament that the corrupt practice was widespread and gave details on the type of cars used when collecting the money. It was only after Mr Mizzi spoke about the scandal on 4 June that police were called in and police investigations started on 5 June. Censu Galea satisfied Mr Mizzi is also insisting that a woman is involved in the MMA imbroglio but somehow she was not suspended from MMA and police did not proceed against her. He said that she was helping John Farrugia, her boss, to shred and dispose of documents which serve as important evidence.   Beleaguered minister Censu Galea on Tuesday issued a statement expressing his satisfaction at the fact that these two persons were arraigned. “Under the present administration, anyone who commits irregularities has to face the law. This goes to show that how serious the MMA and government is when dealing with suspicion of irregularities,” Galea’s ministry claimed.