It’s incredibly bizarre that as the ex-Minister for Health Chris Fearne and the previous Permanent Secretary of Finance Alfred Camilleri are being summoned to court over abetting money-laundering and misappropriation of funds, while the actual executors of the fraud have not yet been charged. These are the officials of Malta Enterprise, namely CEO Mario Galea, who were guided to act accordingly by their own Minister, Chris Cardona Minister for the Economy.
Originally, the government fabricated the idea that the Vitals fraudsters were brought to Malta on the pretense that they were invited by Malta Enterprise. Malta Enterprise was the main official point of contact at the early stages of the negotations and A Malta Enterprise official raised red flags over Steward, and previously, Malta Enterprise also conducted due diligence on the Vitals investors including the fraudster Ram Tumuluri.
In fact, Malta Enterprise signed the Memorandum of Agreement with Vitals that paced the way to the eventual contract with the government. Throughout the execution of the deals, Malta Enterprise remained the main technical interocutor between the government and Vitals and then Steward. Steward even had its offices located just right next to Mario Galea’s and in the same building of Malta Enterprise. The National Auditor also cited a lack of cooperation from Malta Enterprise officials in his report on the Vitals and Steward concessions.
The Police can still charge more people in the case and can charge the current suspects with even additional charges. On the other hand, the Magisterial Inquiry although extensive in its financial analysis can never be complete without a proper follow-up by the Police which would include extensive interrogations of all suspects – something Police Commissioner Angelo Gafas has refused to do, and thus evading a very important step in the collection of evidence in the case.
Today, Mario Galea is still a chairperson of a public entity.
Website Editor
Historian and Publisher
Leave a Reply