EU investigators are now looking into John Dalli’s “business links or undeclared visits to countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East”
Reuters reports today on new strands in the European Commission investigation into John Dalli’s “overseas activities”, widening the scope from his secretive Bahamas trips in summer last year to take in his “business links or undeclared visits to countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East”.
The story has been picked up by several newspapers around the world already, but not in Malta, except for The Malta Independent. It’s fascinating: the story is headlining across the Atlantic in the Chicago Tribune, but in Dalli’s home country, where he is a consultant to the government, Times of Malta doesn’t think it important enough.
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – EU investigators have expanded an anti-corruption investigation into former European health commissioner John Dalli, who was forced out last year after an associate was accused of attempted bribery, to include his overseas dealings while in office.
Dalli’s overseas activities, including business links or undeclared visits to countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, are new strands in a case that has already looked into the propriety of his dealings with tobacco company Swedish Match and whether a number of trips he made to the Bahamas broke European Commission rules.
“We are looking into whether such international activities were compatible with his obligations as a commissioner at the time,” Giovanni Kessler, the head of the European Union’s anti-fraud office, known by its French acronym OLAF, told Reuters.
While Kessler declined to specify the new elements in the case, people who met Dalli in the Bahamas and other business and investment sources said activities in Thailand, Dubai and a handful of African countries were under scrutiny.
(…)
The widening of the probe, which is expected to take several months, makes it the most high-profile corruption scandal to hit the European Union since 1999, when all 20 commissioners resigned following accusations of corruption and financial mismanagement.
(…)
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The Malta government now has one consultant permanently debarred by the World Bank and another consultant under European Commission investigation for flying to secretive business dealings in Africa, Asia and the Middle East while he was EU Commissioner.
Impressive.
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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-eu-corruption-20131024,0,3804568.story
Dalli and Nair have some things in common it seems.
To start with, they were both engaged by Joseph Muscat as his consultants.
Why would he want them under his wings?
So do Alfred Mifsud and John Dalli on the one hand and Nair and Alfred Mifsud on the other.
Nair and Alfred Mifsud?
Yes. Haven’t worked out why the link exists yet, unless it has to do with intended Central Bank business or Alfred Mifsud’s John Dalli/ daughter business interests link, but it’s there.
A flat in Portomaso.
The respectable business and financial community does not trust dubious operators. Their recent vicissitudes at the hands of the World Bank and the EU make them a non-starter and outcasts.
It is only the less respectable jurisdictions that oblige….which makes Malta look like one unless corrective action is taken.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20131024/local/youth-leaders-in-lampedusa-to-highlight-migrants-plight.491781#.UmlzK-y9KK0
Our youth ‘ leaders’ should be promoting diversity, and integration. They should come up with innovative solutions, and not cheap media stunts. They call for action – but fail to provide the answers. How sad.
But the prime minister isn’t aware of all this because nothing came up from the due diligence that was carried out on Mr. Dalli.
Maybe that’s because Dalli ran the due diligence checks himself, just as he may well have done Nair’s?
Ah, but Dalli was an EU Commissioner. The due diligence would need to be done on the EU – remember Muscat’s (stupid) logic about that Chinese company which builds bridges and which was also found to be debarred by the World Bank for fraud and corruption?
Euronews;
http://www.euronews.com/newswires/2177062-exclusive-eu-graft-inquiry-shifts-to-ex-health-chiefs-overseas-activity/
Reuters news agency:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/24/us-eu-corruption-idUSBRE99N0IJ20131024
Thompson Reuters Foundation:
http://www.trust.org/item/20131024113152-anv4n/?source=hptop
Svenska Dagblat:
http://www.svd.se/nyheter/utrikes/utokad-utredning-om-john-dalli_8653486.svd
Times of Malta:
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20131024/local/john-dalli-ba-under-investigation#.UmoZxxAy3-4
[Daphne – The link is dead. And I just love the ‘john dalli ba’.]
Looks like there are some embers still giving off heat at The Times, after all.
San Guzepp ta bur-mar-rad idhol ghalija.
Dejjem Tieghek,
Johnny
Was Dalli working for the Opposition in Malta on those trips, or for John Dalli & Associates?
O Alla hanin, hawwaddni ha nifhem lil John Dalli.
Pudina mimlija zbiba hija ehfef ghall-istonku mill-kawlata li hawwad Dalli.
X’kull wahda, wkoll, meta tisma kemm Johnnie Taghna Lkoll gera bejn Malta, Brussel, il-Bahamas u pajjizi Afrikani, tisthajlek li qed tara xi dram ibbazat fuq il-geografija…u bhalissa fejn qieghed, Johnnie Taghhom?
Tghid Joseph Muscat baghtu mal-Ministru tas-Sahha halli kull par ikun ghal paru (it-tnejn ihawdu)?
Ghax issa Johnny Nazzjonalist. Qal.
Its becoming even smellier. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that Dalli was brokering deals for the future Labour government while he was EU Commissioner.
That’s why Muscat now has no choice but to protect him as otherwise Dalli might squeal.
It makes perfect sense given all the support he had constantly from Labour in the past few years, and all the support he gave them. Why else would Muscat take all these risks he is taking with this man, if not because he knows that the risks inherent in not doing so are in fact much greater for him?
My thoughts exactly.
If Dalli is innocent as he claims, he should urge the Prime Minister to give a presidential pardon to Silvio Zammit so that Zammit can speak out all the truth.
If there is nothing that Zammit can say that can damage Dalli’s reputation, and since Dalli wants justice to his name at all costs, what’s stopping him from doing so?
Tant thawwdet din ta’ John Dalli li nahseb l-ahjar haga li jista jaghmel hija li jitlaq u jmur jistahba x’imkien li lanqas il-gremxul ta’ Filfla ma jsibu.
Ma nafx ghalfejn imma dan Dalli kien iggerixxni u qatt ma kelli grazzja mieghu. Ghajnejh kont narhom dejjem suspettati.
Huwa bniedem li trid tibza minnhu ghax iddahlek f’xi bawxata.
Jien nahseb li ghagel wisq bill-quddiesa u Te Deum fil-knisja ta’ San Bastajn. Haseb li barra minn Malta iharsu lejn kollox bhal ‘b’daqsekk’ u ‘ta’ qabilhom muhx hekk kienu jaghmlu’.
And by the way, the Times of Malta did not pick this one up but was quick to pick up the Ministerial increase under the previous government. I am very surprised how that journalist went silent and is picking and investigating nothing that would embarrass certain quarters. I wonder from whom he is receiving his instructions and guidelines.
Probably this is another “case closed” for the Prime Minister.
But not for OLAF and anyone with some sense.
Reuters must be unaware that Dalli himself only missed being arraigned thanks to political maneuvering.
Last week Ranier Fsadni wrote an interesting article in which he asserted that Malta’s press is less successful at getting politicians to take responsibility for their actions because it doesn’t hunt like a pack.
He said that Malta’s press is too fragmented. When only one newspaper focuses on an issue or a personality, it sounds more like a personal crusade run by an editor than news which interests the nation. The front pages of newspapers in Malta are often completely about different subjects and journalists are often happy to accept vague answers or ‘No comment’ as an answer to a question without hounding the politician or personality any further.
It could be partly down to competition and newspapers wanting to differentiate themselves from one another but I’m sure Ranier Fsadni is making a very valid point.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20131017/opinion/School-for-scandal.490687#.Umm4GXBmiSo
It was an excellent article, and I did miss his column yesterday.
One would normally think that a hot issue is a hot issue for everyone; that attention is directed to an issue, or not directed, for certain specific reasons of interest that in a common environmental context should not be too different. Meat is either fresh, not fresh or putrid. There’s no mistaking the smell of putrid meat.
What is defined as a hot issue is distinct to the agenda of each newspaper.
Ignoring a hot issue, playing it down, looking in another direction cannot be put down to editorial ignorance.
It is a conscious editorial decision, or one that emanates from above that, and taking the decision to negate the existence of a hot issue cheats the reader, and therefore the electorate, of proper objective treatment and analysis.
In-depth treatment has become a rare occurrence these days, since scratching further beneath the surface would make it impossible for everything to glide along so smoothly in the direction of their choice. Touching, eventually, upon everything and investigating and providing an in-depth analysis of nothing. Inept rather than in-depth.
Bar the occasional glimmer of hope on a Thursday and Saturday, readers are treated like idiots, and for some, that seems to be in order.
Bland reporting is also to blame for all the ‘educated’ comments turning up under each article, especially, in The Times of Malta. If the article was well investigated, well analysed, well discussed and written, then this would eliminate the space freely granted to the vacant minds turning up with directed persistence beneath the columns.
It is all a question of choice of direction of attention.
If in the scale of things there are at the finer end ideas, broadening to concepts, direction and flavour, then the choice of ‘flavour’ is linked to the selection of journalists, reporters and contributors.
Surely, for the educated nation we declare ourselves as, there is more sincere journalistic talent in the pool?
In a small society such as ours, toes are bound to be stepped on if truth and objectivity are to play a role. Why the fear? Are we all so inter-dependent on one another that this takes false precedence and becomes the barrier?
Everybody is, I hope, capable of putting – or in a free position to formulate and present – a series of pertinent questions in order to make that choice.
Who is ultimately responsible for choice of direction? For choice of flavour?
Perhaps we have freedom of speech, but freedom to think has blinkers on it.
Article 18 of the Human Rights Convention doesn’t cover all aspects. As disseminators of information, newspapers have a responsibility to fully exploit this particular aspect, not keep it in a straight-jacket.
As disseminators of news and information, editorial decisions need to take journalists’ and readers’ “right to think” fully into account.
Analysis and investigation need to move beyond ‘maybe’, ‘perhaps,’ generalisations and the overcautiousness of mediocre political correctness.
Journalists won’t hunt in a pack until the blinkers are off. Effect the change wherever the source is. If there is lack of freedom to operate professionally, leave. There is more at stake than “just” an individual job.
Does the lack of freedom to think form part of genetic programming or is it an inherited part of the legal mindset: an issue is only explored to a certain point, beyond which exploration is counter-productive to the interest of at least one party?
It would appear that John Dalli is at risk of contracting some other incapacitating disease in which case his posting to Mater Dei Hospital by Joseph Muscat might turn out to be most appropriate. There would be no need for air travel and his consultancy could be carried out from his hospital bed.
In the meantime it would not be unwise to line up some other MLP-approved consultant, with the usual due diligence to which we have become accustomed, in case the medical condition takes a turn for the worse and there would arise the urgent need for a replacement.
No not him. He is much too busy with his lawyers.
Of all the messes Joseph Muscat has cooked up in 7 months or so, this is the one that will blow up most spectacularly in his face.
Every time a new investigation emerges, John Dalli claims that he is a victim of a frame up and that possibly Dr Lawrence Gonzi is behind this. This man is either seriously delusional or else a compulsive liar.
Or both!
Joseph Muscat should give his reaction on the latest news on John Dalli, when he is still in Brussels.
Why ask for a comment from the prime minister? You already have it: “I was not aware and I am looking into it”. Same as with his blacklisted consultant Nair.
Warren Buffet once said that the “tone” of any administration is always set at the top,
The “tone” that is characterising this administration was immediately clear – cheat and alter the system to find ways to make loads of money irrespective of whether these ways border the unethical and the criminal.
Clearly, the fragile reputation of our island is suffering as Muscat pouts and stamps his feet in front of international television on the one and associates himself with pirates on the other. Credibility in the eyes of the international community is steadily decreasing.
Meanwhile Her Royal Highness sets an example to the Infantas and to her Ladies-in-waiting – “Get your all kicks before the whole house goes up in flames.”
The irony lies in the term “high tea” is not all that posh. It usually refers to an evening meal of dinner of the working class (http://www.tea.co.uk/tea-customs).
High tea is Brit working-class for dinner.
Mrs M doesn’t know that does she? She probably thinks the word “high” means “posh”
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20131025/local/pn-envisages-problems-with-eu-on-citizenship-sale.491868#.Umo5dWtBupo
Another botched half-baked scheme by Muscat. The EU will have something to say about this as in Montenegro’s case.
The details given by Dalli himself in a press conference he himself called in his own home at Portomaso last July are worth revisiting in the light of recent announcements made about the development of the energy sector in Malta. Here:
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2013-07-07/news/dalli-retains-mater-dei-post-after-bahamas-explanation-satisfies-pm-2008350728/
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2013-10-25/news/mechanics-inundated-with-diesel-fuel-pump-repair-works-2987524101/
Fiddling with diesel supply by “watering” it down with biofuel ?
Look at the fuel pump whilst filling up and you’ll see a sticker on the diesel pump saying they can legally add up to 7% biodiesel to the regular diesel… and they still charge us for regular diesel full price.
If I want to put biodiesel in my vehicle… ill do so myself. They are ripping us off by throwing all sorts of crap in the fuel, then reducing the price slightly to look fine and dandy.
Biodiesel should only be used with care and from good sources. No way will I trust local made biodiesel. I`ve seen samples of this product settle and seperate into layers which shows its an inferior product.
And lets not forget that some diesel pumps are sourcing fuel from the other distributor/importer on the island. Enemalta isnt the only supplier for diesel whilst it still is for petrol fuel.
It’s all linked.
The huge budget PL had available for the electoral campaign.
The frequent errands John Dalli had in the Bahamas.
The appointment of John Dalli as consultant to the PL government.
Shiv Nair’s and Dalli’s African activities.
The sale of Maltese passports in a secretive manner.
I believe that all this has been brewing way before the Dalligate.
I would add the Chinese connection somewhere in there too. Everything falls into place too nicely not to do so.
Lorry, I agree completely.
And all this was finally sealed with the Dalli – Muscat telephone call on the 16th of October 2012 barely 30 minutes after Dalli’s resignation from UE commissioner.
And also the change of the police commissioner and his investigative team on the case
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20131025/local/1984-curia-attack-did-good-to-the-faith-in-malta.491874#.UmpReWtBupo
Sammy Meilaq: still scum after all these years.
http://marciokenobi.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/yes-we-scan-2.jpg
Why is this photo so funny?
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20131025/local/three-court-services-launched.491897#.UmptsPlgeCk
True – it’s as if they all just noticed a great big rip in the back of his trousers.
Now who’s stuck the Kick Me sign this time?
Simply disgusting!
Hmieg minn kullimkien!
Malta boasts a high concentration of historical sites, churches and dodgy consultants.
One shady consultant per 158 square kilometres of its territorial land must be some kind of record.
Nahseb, lanqas jekk huh jaghmel quddiesa fuq il-fosos ma johrog minnha din id-darba.
Dalli’s reputation or whatever is left of it is in a endless free fall.
What are the real non-obvious connections between Dalli and the proposed deputy governor Alfred Mifsud?
[Daphne – Dalli owns shares in Alfred Mifsud’s main company, Crystal Finance.]
What a bunch of corrupt, unethical and immoral weirdos
And, a reminder to go with the above question: Crystal Finance was Joseph Muscat’s only Private Sector employer outside of the Labour Party:
“Alfred Mifsud, the man who gave Joseph Muscat his first and only job outside the Labour Party, at Crystal Finance.”
Oh I see you’ve already tackled the subject back in July: http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2013/07/why-is-john-dallis-i-hold-my-fathers-interests-daughter-a-director-of-alfred-mifsuds-crystal-finance-company/
Another little piece of the puzzle:
Emma Corbin was famous for scams with bank guarantees and gold certificates.
The point is that if you have access to a Central Bank the story changes and actually some deals can be made. You could also trade with gold and make lots of money. There are a lot of possibilities – for humanitarian purposes of course.
Do you imagine what people like Nair and Corbin can do with access to a government and to a central bank?
Dalli – Emma Corbin – Mifsud – Central Bank – Nair
Probably even Muscat bought that business opportunity who could also provide black funds for the party.