Dalli on Vitals fixer, distances himself from former aide
Former European health commissioner John Dalli confirmed he introduced a key player in the Vitals hospitals scandal to Joseph Muscat.
Fielding questions during a press conference, Dalli said he first met Vitals fixer Shaukat Ali in Libya.
Investigators believe it was Dalli who introduced Ali to the former prime minister. Soon after, Ali described himself as an “unofficial adviser” to Muscat.
Dalli said Ali, along with many other Libyan nationals, contacted him for help during the 2011 Libya revolution. “I helped him, like I helped many others, including ex-ministers. I found schools for his children, I found a place for him to live. Once, we were at a wedding. There was Joe Muscat there as well. And I introduced him to Joe Muscat. So, f ****** what,” Dalli told reporters.
Ali, along with Muscat, have both been charged with corruption over a 2015 deal that saw the former prime minister’s government hand over the running of three public hospitals to inexperienced investors.
Dalli said yesterday he had cut ties with Ali after he became “very, very, very friendly” with Muscat’s right-hand man, Keith Schembri. Schembri is also charged over the Vitals scandal.
Dalli refused to elaborate on why Ali’s friendship with Schembri was cause for concern. “I have a level of intelligence, OK,” he said.
Months after resigning as European commissioner in 2012 over bribery claims, Dalli had been invited by Muscat to draw up a report about public healthcare in Malta.
Dalli denied knowing that Ali too had plans for healthcare in Malta.
The former European commissioner said his advice on how to improve healthcare were never taken up by Muscat, just like it was never taken up by former prime minister Lawrence Gonzi.
“They were afraid to make the changes. I believe the way the hospitals are run, being the anterooms of the doctors’ private clinics, is not the proper way,” he said.
BriBery allegations
Dalli distanced himself from his former aide, Silvio Zammit, who had been charged with soliciting a €60 million bribe to overturn an EU ban on Snus, a smokeless tobacco. Zammit, now deceased, had been arraigned in December 2012.
An investigation by Olaf, the EU’s anti-fraud office, concluded that circumstantial evidence indicated Dalli was aware of Zammit’s attempt to solicit the bribe from tobacco lobbyists. The probe had led to Dalli’s downfall as commissioner in October 2012. He was charged over the alleged bribery a decade later.
“He had his own plan of what he wanted to do. I was not part of it. Absolutely… What Silvio Zammit said, it was his own doing. He was selling himself,” Dalli said.
Zammit was recorded soliciting the multi-million-euro bribe in a call with tobacco lobbyists. Dalli welcomed the news that a Brussels court gave former Olaf boss Giovanni Kessler a one-year suspended sentence for illegally recording Zammit’s calls.
Snus makers Swedish Match
had reported the alleged bribery to the European Commission in 2012, triggering the Olaf probe.
In their report, Swedish Match claimed that a meeting about overturning the Snus ban took place on February 10, 2012. Dalli, Zammit and lobbyist Gayle Kimberley were present for the alleged meeting, Swedish Match reported.
According to Kimberley, Dalli had left the meeting and said all further discussion on the matter should go through Zammit, the Swedish Match report stated.
Dalli insisted yesterday he was not present for the claimed February 10, 2012 meeting.
He questioned why Kimberley had never been charged over her role in the alleged bribery attempt.
Dalli insisted that Olaf ’s own report confirmed he was not part of the bribery attempt.
He claimed Kessler, together with former police commissioner John Rizzo and current police commissioner Angelo Gafà, had “conspired” with a tobacco lobbyist to lie about that meeting.
“They knew I was not part of it.”
Dalli also accused his former commission boss, José Manuel Barroso, of wanting to stop the introduction of stricter tobacco laws that he was spearheading.
secret BVi company
Fielding questions during the press conference, Dalli said his ownership of a British Virgin Islands company was for a Libya project “that fizzled out”.
Times of Malta had exposed Dalli’s secret ownership of the company as part of an International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) investigation. Dalli sought to muddy the reporting by claiming ICIJ is “sponsored” by Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros. He said Soros has pumped millions in supporting abortion.
The former European commissioner said he never declared his ownership of the company in his annual asset filings as an MP because the venture “fizzled out”.
Dalli also downplayed his links to an alleged Ponzi scheme used to scam American pensioners out of their savings. His two daughters were charged in connection with the scam in October 2017. The case has registered slow progress.
Dalli was pictured with one of the alleged ringleaders of the scam, Mary Swan, during a lightning visit to the Bahamas when he was still commissioner. He claimed his Bahamas visit was linked to an African charity venture that never took off.
Dalli’s former head of cabinet, Joanna Darmanin, had told an Olaf probe into the Bahamas visit that Dalli never showed any interest in charity. Asked about this statement yesterday, Dalli dismissed Darmanin as a “perjurer”.
The way the hospitals are run, being the anterooms of the doctors’ private clinics, is not the proper way