Honesty triumphs, at last

For over a decade, Victor Bonello has battled to expose Labour’s former secretary general, Jimmy Magro’s blatant corruption.

Bonello’s efforts have finally been vindicated.  Magro has been convicted and sentenced to a 5-year jail term and given a lifelong interdiction.

He was found guilty of soliciting a bribe, making false declarations to benefit himself, trading in influence and corruption.

That conviction is a unique, precious victory for the whole nation.  But it came at a huge personal cost for Bonello, who courageously and steadfastly fought for the truth to emerge against all odds.

In 2017, Bonello admitted on Daphne Caruana Galizia’s Running Commentary, “I have been fighting this battle for almost three years, and am exhausted both mentally and physically, as well as financially.  Trying to be honest is practically impossible in Malta.  I now understand why people get involved with these corrupt characters, and how much easier it is to work if you are dishonest”.  Bonello summed up Labour’s Malta.

He knew more than anybody else the toll his battle for the truth had taken upon his health and his life.

Bonello had a lifelong dream. He spent his entire pension fund on developing a composting machine. When the local councils association issued an EU-funded tender for the provision of one, Bonello believed his chance had arrived.

Labour had appointed Jimmy Magro as special adviser to the local councils association. He was the project lead and served on the adjudication committee.

Magro sent Bonello emails from his private Gmail account informing him of the date when the tender would be issued, but also sending him the phone number of Kollvik Ltd, a rival bidder.

Magro told Bonello to contact Kollvik in advance so they could submit a joint bid. “Contact him so you can work together—then we can meet later to discuss our commercial take.”

Bonello met Magro at a cafeteria.  Magro promised he could secure the tender for him but demanded €10,000 as payment because he had pending tax bills and an upcoming holiday in France.

Magro even went to the residence of Disma Attard, Victor Bonello’s partner on the bid. With him, Magro took Chris Cassar, another potential bidder for the tender. Magro pressured Attard to work with Cassar on a joint bid and demanded €25,000 to secure the tender for them. Attard refused “to fund Magro’s holidays”.

When the tender was finally awarded to Bonello’s rivals, Kollvik,  Magro spitefully called Bonello to tell him that he had disqualified Bonello’s bid and that “your rival Kollvik got 100% and you got 0%”.

Bonello went to “everyone” to reveal Magro’s corruption.  He went to civil service head Mario Cutajar, then-local councils minister Owen Bonnici, and Ian Borg, who was EU funds Parliamentary Secretary at the time.  They all ignored him.

He finally went to former prime minister Joseph Muscat, whom he met in Castille armed with printed documents of Magro’s compromising e-mails. But Muscat got very angry, crushed the documents, and shouted, “Don’t come to me with these things”

Muscat now claims he did what all other prime ministers did and told Bonello to go to the police.  Why then did he get angry?  Why did he crush those documents Bonello gave him?

When Prime Minister Robert Abela received information about Opposition Leader Bernard Grech’s tax irregularities, he didn’t send the informant to the police; he called the tax commissioner. He said he had “done my duty in passing on the information”.  But now Abela is saying he would have done the same as Muscat.

Bonello understood Joseph Muscat’s message.  Muscat didn’t want to know, didn’t want Bonello to expose the former Labour general secretary’s corruption.

So Bonello went to the EU institutions. In 2015, the Director General for EU-funded programmes contacted the Internal Audit and Investigation Department within the OPM, requesting that they investigate the serious allegations.

The Permanent Commission against Corruption also investigated and, in its 2017 report, stated that it was “morally convinced” that Magro solicited a bribe and that the case merited investigation by the police.

Owen Bonnici, who had failed to act when presented with the evidence, declared in parliament that “no money appears to have changed hands”.

Minister Chris Cardona, who’d appointed Magro as chairman of the Major Projects Coordination Agency within Malta Enterprise, rejected a Times of Malta Freedom of Information request to publish Magro’s contract.

Malta Enterprise suspended Magro on half pay, claiming this was in line with the conditions of Magro’s contract, which nobody could confirm as Labour kept Magro’s contract secret.

Even worse, Magro managed to claw back the €9,000 that was withheld as part of his suspension on half-pay.  Magro then went into olive oil production becoming head of the Kooperattiva Produtturi taz-Żebbuġ (Cooperative of Olive Producers), securing over €400,000 in EU funds and personally raking in another €28,000 in professional fees.

He pressured the Lands Authority CEO to provide his co-op with government land and demanded the government buy his olive oil: “We are waiting for orders from Minister Ian Borg, Anton Refalo, MTA CEO Carlo Micallef, Commissioner for Films Johann Grech and other persons in leadership positions.” Minister Miriam Dalli’s Project Green even collaborated with him to organise an “olive oil tasting event.”

Magro’s lies and corruption have finally caught up with him. The court lambasted Magro’s dishonesty.  Magro claimed that his reference to “our commercial take” simply referred to the profits the councils would make from the project.  The court said his “defence made no sense and the defendant appeared to think the court lacked common sense or was indeed an imbecile”.

Magro then claimed that the phrase “commercial take” came from using ChatGPT. But the AI chatbot only became available eight years after he sent his email.

At long last, Malta has a conviction for corruption.  For that rare victory, we have one brave man to thank. Bonello paid a very high price – but at least he can now savour his remarkable triumph against the odds. Malta is deeply indebted to the man.