Source: Mr. George Mangion¸ PKF Malta
As Published Sunday 21st April 2013 in the Sunday Independent.
It continued by saying that this businessman had tried to influence future EU legislation on tobacco products asking the cool price of €60m¸ whereas when Mr Dalli was confronted by Mr Barosso the EU president¸ Dalli categorically rejected the investigation’s finding. It is surreal ¸ now that the local election result is out and the dust started to settle yet nobody from the PN party came to Dalli’s rescue and in fact even in the thick of a 6 week long election campaign PN apologists stayed clear of discussing his case or trying to help him regain his integrity. Mr Dalli was a minister in the PN and for a long period was responsible for finance when in 1994 he cleverly engineered a plan in a Big Bang approach to introduce 20 new fiscal laws (including the introduction of va ) resulting with the setting a solid foundation for an emerging financial services industry. During this period he was the right hand man of prime minister Dr Fenech Adami and on the retirement of the later he contested the post for the vacancy of a prime minister which he lost to Dr Gonzi. For a short period he was appointed health minister but was made to resign by Dr Gonzi on the strength of a anonymous report penned by a private investigator which in time¸ was proved in court to be a false report. Mr Dalli was reinstated a few months before the election in 2008 and accepted the post as a consultant to Dr Gonzi.Try Google “EU scandals” and you will promptly be regaled by multiple references pointing furtively to a locally brewed scandal alias Dalligate and the questionable OLAF connection. Without taking sides on who is right or wrong one can be excused to ask whether this publicity does any credit to the integrity of the George Cross Island which fought so gallantly in the second World war and won with honour against the tyranny of the Swastika scourge which vowed to sink it ? Perhaps it is relevant to reproduce Google result in my search on EU scandals by quoting the opinion of BBC on the abrupt resignation of Mr Dalli as it recounted how ” EU commissioner for health¸ has resigned after an anti-fraud inquiry linked him to an attempt to influence tobacco legislation. The EU’s anti-fraud office (Olaf) found that a local businessman had tried to use his contacts with Mr Dalli for financial gain.
Upon re-election Dalli resigned as a member of parliament when he was offered to fill the vacant seat in the EU as a Commissioner for Health and Consumer Affairs – a post which he was forced to resign last October following the revelation of a OLAF internal investigation .This was based on what it termed as ” circumstantial evidence ” involving the giant tobacco company Philip Morris which operates a joint-venture with Swedish Match – the Swedish company was the one that filed the complaint with the EC that a Maltese businessman had asked for a €60 million bribe ostensibly to interest Dalli in reversing of a EU ban for the sale of snus outside of Scandinavia and the United States. With Dalli now playing the victim¸ a story is evolving around an alleged EU miscarriage of justice and implied corruption which in turn has started a campaign of vague innuendo in the international press against the entire EU institution. But while this Dalligate – a story of mystery and intrigue continues to hit the headlines one cannot forget that the Commis