Former Director General of the Department of Contracts, Anthony Cachia, confirmed that the department was not involved in the Vitals concession since, at the time, the department would not get involved in the utility concession.

Criminal proceedings against former deputy prime minister Chris Fearne, former minister Edward Scicluna and others resumed on Friday morning in 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, was unable to testify under cross-examination in person, but was prepared to do so via video conference . Magistrate Caruana offered defense lawyers the choice of presenting oral arguments on the issue during the same hearing or written arguments within a week.

After a short recess, defense attorney Stephen Tonna Lowell advised the court that a timely, written response would be preferable. That was the collective feeling of the defense attorneys.

The first witness to appear was financial controller Bernice Bugeja, who informed the court that she had been asked to present invoices for payments to experts. She informed the Court that while some invoices related to the case in question, several others, around 40% spontaneous, related to unrelated magisterial investigations. These could not be disclosed.

The Court ruled that only relevant and “readily presentable” invoices should be presented.

Deputy Registrar Marbeck Spiteri also took the floor, presenting the proceedings of the civil suit brought by Adrian Delia against the government, which led to the termination of the contract by the civil court.

At this point, defense attorney Tonna Lowell argued that the prosecution should explain the evidentiary relevance of this procedure. While prosecutor Refalo said the evidence was presented for the sake of completeness, defense attorneys collectively protested, arguing that the evidence had no probative value and that the defendants were not involved in the civil procedure.

Defense lawyer Franco Galea stressed that if the prosecution decides to rely on such evidence, it will have to indicate against which defendants this evidence will be used.

The Court accepted the admissibility of the procedure.

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.

Before this date, the contracts department did not get involved in such concessions.

The Court heard that at a meeting in 2015 attended by Cachia and others, the hospital concession was considered a public service concession, so that Projects Malta, rather than the department, is involved in managing the tender process.

Planning Authority Unit Manager Roderick Livori presented information on invoices and payments associated with Vitals applications. Of these, the majority concerned payments made by Ram Tumuluri or on his behalf.

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 as well as their respective bank account statements.

The matter was adjourned until January 17, 2025, at 9:30 a.m., which will make it the last session of the year.