Former director-general of the Department of Contracts, Anthony Cachia, confirmed that the department was not involved in the Vitals concession because at the time the department would not be involved in public service concessions.

Criminal proceedings against former Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne, former minister Edward Scicluna and others resumed on Friday morning before the court presided over by Magistrate Leonard Caruana.

The hearing began with lead prosecutor Francesco Refalo informing the court that Samuel Sittlington, a forensic expert involved in the investigation, could not testify under cross-examination in person, but was ready to do so via video conference. Magistrate Caruana offered the defense lawyers to make oral submissions on the matter during the same sitting or written submissions within a week.

After a brief adjournment of the hearing, defense attorney Stephen Tonna Lowell informed the court that a timely written response would be preferred. This was the collective view of the defense lawyers.

The first witness to take the stand was chief financial officer Bernice Bugeja, who informed the court that she was asked to produce invoices of payments to experts. She informed the court that while some invoices related to the case at hand, several others, about 40% in advance, related to unrelated Master’s examinations. These could not be revealed.

The court ruled that only the relevant invoices that are “easy to present” were presented.

Deputy Attorney General Marbeck Spiteri also took the stand and presented the proceedings in the civil case brought by Adrian Delia against the government, which led to the civil court canceling the contract.

At this point, defense attorney Tonna Lowell argued that the prosecution should explain the relevance of these procedures to probation. While prosecuting attorney Refalo said the evidence was presented for completeness, defense attorneys collectively objected, arguing that said evidence lacks probative value and that the defendants were not involved in the civil proceedings.

Defense attorney Franco Galea pointed out that if the prosecution decided to rely on such evidence, it would have to specify against which defendants such evidence should be used.

The court approved that the proceedings could be admissible.

Former DoC director testifies

During his testimony, former Director General of the Department of Contracts Anthony Cachia told the court that in 2016 relevant laws were introduced regarding the regulation of public service concessions.

Prior to this date, the Contracts Department did not engage in such concessions.

The court heard that during a 2015 meeting attended by Cachia and others, the hospital concession was deemed to qualify as a public service concession, with the result that Projects Malta, rather than the department, became involved in managing the tender process.

Roderick Livori, a Unit Manager for the Planning Authority, presented information on the invoices and payments relating to the Vitals applications. Of these, the majority were payments made by or on behalf of Ram Tumuluri.

Following his testimony, several witnesses on behalf of a number of banks, including Bank of Valletta, APS, HSBC, BNF, Sparkasse Bank and Lidion Bank, took the stand and submitted documents relating to the accused and their respective bank statements.

The case is adjourned until January 17, 2025, at 9.30, making this the last meeting of the year.