So now Malta’s obligation to cooperate with OLAF is some kind of secret plot against the investigated
It turns out that the prime minister knew before Dalli did that Dalli was under investigation. He waited to see whether Dalli would tell him of his own accord, and when he didn’t, he rang him.
And disingenuous Dalli gave the press the impression that it was he who had asked to meet the prime minister to tell him about ‘hacking’, and not the prime minister who had summoned him to deliver answers on why he was under investigation by the European Commission’s anti-fraud body.
Hidden hand, my left foot. The bottom line is this: who did Silvio Zammit work for? John Dalli. He is obviously under instruction by Dalli himself not to speak to the press, so that Dalli’s version alone goes out there.
Without Zammit being put at the other end of a telephone or microphone, the details of the extent of his involvement with Dalli will remain suppressed.
And that’s just the idea, isn’t it.
The Times, today
Malta cooperated with OLAF in Dalli investigation
Malta assisted OLAF – the EU anti-fraud office – in its investigations of allegations on John Dalli, the Office of the Prime Minister revealed today.
Mr Dalli resigned his post of European Commissioner a week ago following allegations of trading in influence involving him and Sliema businessman Silvio Zammit.
The Office of the Prime Minister disclosed the information in reply to questions sent by The Times after an interview with Mr Dalli.
The newspaper asked when the Prime Minister found out about this investigation, how he came to know of it and what he did with the information from July up to the time the investigation findings were made public.
The Office of the Prime Minister replied as follows:
“On the 5th of July 2012 he (the Prime Minister) received information from the Cabinet Secretary Dr Godwin Grima that OLAF representatives were in Malta investigating a matter related to then Commissioner John Dalli. This information was communicated by AFCOS (Anti Fraud Coordinating Services – the Malta interlocutor of OLAF) to the Cabinet Secretary but no further details were made available.
“At a later date the Cabinet Secretary updated the Prime Minister and informed him that John Dalli was aware of the investigation. The Prime Minister called John Dalli and asked him what this investigation was about. John Dalli stated that he knew about the investigation and that the matter was being clarified by him directly with OLAF.
“With regards to your third question, the Prime Minister immediately instructed the Cabinet Secretary to make sure that full cooperation was afforded to OLAF by all concerned.
“Prior to the 17th July PN Executive Meeting, there was a telephone call as well as a meeting at John Dalli’s request on the 19th of July at 11.00am at Auberge de Castille. The telephone call and the meeting dealt with his allegations regarding hacking and with allegations regarding a list of seven persons.”
During the interview, Mr Dalli was asked by The Times if he suspected a Maltese hidden hand behind his resignation. He said: “It could be and I am going to stop here.”
He insisted he had absolutely no knowledge of the alleged request by Maltese businessman Silvio Zammit for a bribe in return for influence on legislation in his portfolio.
Mr Dalli also said Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi had spoken to him about the OLAF investigation months ago, before it became public, but would not disclose details of the conversation.
Mr Dalli also said that while in the Tobacco Directive he proposed, that the ban on snus be retained, he had wanted a ban on all smokeless tobacco but this was changed after pressure from the European Commission.
“In fact, in the final version, the ban on snus is still there…
“In fact, to tell you the truth, we were also suggesting a ban on all smokeless tobacco but that was changed when we negotiated with the other services in the Commission,” Mr Dalli said.
He said the opposition was not from DGs at that stage. It had not reached them yet.
“The fact is that when we were finished with the directive on August 25, we received a letter from the Secretary General of the Commission and the head of the legal services of the Commission – after this draft directive had already passed two impact assessments – saying that this had to be postponed because they wanted to discuss some other things. That’s your answer.”
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It is a matter of time before Dalli and Zammit will draw daggers on each other and start to spill each other’s blood. That would be another phase in this tragi-comedy.
Interesting interview with Dalli in The Times. Can someone ask The Times whether they already approached Dalli for an interview last week and were turned away?
U Silvio l-pastizz jibla kollox. Miskin qedt jaghmel xogholu ta’ canvasser.
How is it John Dalli never took any action re the following:
http://ec-eu-john-dalli.blogspot.com/
Does anyone know who the lawyers advising Dalli are?
The Times interview today has Dalli saying that he met with Zammit AFTER OLAF confronted Dalli in July.
Prior to this, Dalli’s stance, as I recall, was that “after the 6th January” he never spoke to Zammit about the matter.
But Dalli now says he spoke to Zammit to “see what the hell was happening”. And he then informed OLAF about this meeting.
Confused am I.
After today’s interview, we learn that Barroso, Olaf, the tobacco industry and the maltese press all worked to bring down Dalli. Included in these horrible people is GonziPN.
So we had Dr. Gonzi giving Dalli the best paid job that a Maltese person could ever dream of and of course this was tied to getting him out of the way.
The question therefore arises why the f**k did Dr. Gonzi now work against Dalli to screw up his job and bring him back to Malta?
That’s Dalli conspiratorial logic for you.
Another question worth addressing would be, why did both John Dalli and Lawrence Gonzi keep all of Malta in the dark that an investigation on Malta’s Commissioner was underway.
[Daphne – John Dalli for obvious reasons, and the prime minister because procedure prevents it.]
Both of them knew, and both thought fit for their own different reasons, to keep the Maltese in complete darkness, as if it were not in our interest to know about this fact.
Now that we know, it’s not as if the opposition has come out in force asking for his head has it?
So sorry Mandango, but your cheap tacks are so Joseph’s.
What you should ask is how come since Joseph came onto the scene his whole blurred thingy’s done away with constitutional roles and obligations?
Dalli must the been hoping against hope that he would be let off the hook. In some way or another. L-ahhar li tmut it-tama.
Now what if the Attorney general finds no trace of wrongdoing in John Dalli’s actions, what will Daphne say ? Simple. That the Attorney General is an accomplice of John Dalli, perhaps ?
[Daphne – Dear God, Mr Privitera, you are so very slow. I am the very one who’s been patiently trying to explain the people the difference between a resignation matter and a criminal offence. The AG deals in criminal offences, not resignation matters. We have been told already that OLAF found no evidence of criminal behaviour re John Dalli. The report went to the AG because of Silvio Zammit NOT Dalli.]
Daphne, I agree when you say “He is obviously under instruction by Dalli himself not to speak to the press”.
I would go further. How much has Zammit’s silence been bought for?
Another twist, from ‘this Silvio Zammit’ to this.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20121023/local/dalli-defends-canvassers-role-of-middlemen.442265
Yes, I’m pretty sure he has hundreds of canvassers offering meetings with Mr.Dalli. Why, sometimes they even try the hard sell to foreign investors on their first visit to Malta.
OLAF found out that Dalli knew about Zammit’s offer to the Swedes of ‘change the law for 60 million euros’.
If Dalli didn’t know then his lawyers should be all over Zammit like a bad rash.
Why are the press not hounding Zammit?
Is it because they don’t believe Dalli?
“OLAF found out that Dalli knew about Zammit’s offer to the Swedes of ‘change the law for 60 million euros’.”
Are we sure that OLAF mentioned the amount? I was going to ask this question. It was stated that OLAF gave Dalli details about the investigation and so I presume they mentioned the sixty million.
However, in one of the early interviews he gave to TVM, Dalli said that he knew about the amount through an sms he received earlier, before the said interview. What is the truth?