Objection, Your Honour! ‘Your cars should be mine’, Christian Borg insists

Tista’ taqra dan l-artiklu bil-Malti

He is facing charges of kidnapping apart from being investigated for other crimes, including money laundering and drug trafficking, but Christian Borg felt it appropriate to contest a decision to stop a €3 million contract in which he was to supply cars to the judiciary, including those deciding his case.

Borg has filed a formal objection, saying the Contracts Department had taken the decision based on the wrong interpretation of the five-year tender with the sole aim of “invalidating the company’s (Borg’s) offer.”

The Shift revealed last week that the judiciary pressured the prime minister to cancel the contract. They also threatened to boycott the use of these cars if the government persisted in giving this contract to Christian Borg.

Borg is a former client and partner of Prime Minister Robert Abela. They had even entered into business together over a property deal in Żabbar through which Abela made some €45,000 at a time when he was a consultant to the Planning Authority.

The tender won by Borg’s company, Princess Operations Ltd, which Borg claims owns some 1,500 cars, was now “found to be administratively non-compliant”.

In his complaint, Borg said the Department of contracts was also wrong in assuming that the daily benchmark rate – €12.11 a day for each car – was unrealistic.

“Should the Evaluation Committee have required clarification on such issue, the company would have shown that its operation of roughly about 1,500 vehicles for car-rentals and leasing enables it to have insurance rates at preferential rates and to be able to apply different rates and costings in order to be able to quote daily rates which in the context of car leasing are better than those of its competitors in the market.”

At 29, Borg has amassed a multi-million-euro fortune, including unexplained wealth. Yet he objected to the Contracts Department due diligence exercise, which found that some of the contracts submitted as evidence of the company’s leasing contracts – all with government departments including the Asylum Agency (AWAS), Wasteserv, the Commissioner of Police and Malta Enterprise – were not supplied by the company but by Borg himself.

While admitting that this was true, his lawyer Albert Libreri said, “it should be noted that Christian Borg is the ultimate sole shareholder of the company” and that “the income was applied to the accounts of the company, which is the reason why the company declares such contracts as its own”.

Having an already colourful past, Borg was charged with kidnapping, among other criminal acts, earlier this year. Despite these red flags, he was still allowed to submit a bid for a government tender later in the year – and won.

Following the accusations filed against him, Borg resigned from all his positions as director in his companies. Instead, he hired Joe Camenzuli – the official photographer of the Labour Party.

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KLAUS
KLAUS
2 years ago

I am really curious to see how the cowardly ROBBER Abela will try to wriggle out of this.

Since he knows the villain, it’s probably all just a coincidence.

I suspect he will run away again and keep quiet.

I think I will play LOTTO, there are also many strange coincidences in Malta.

makjavel
makjavel
2 years ago
Reply to  KLAUS

Abela will play stupid, I know nothing , where is the proof , the police have investigated and found nothing , the mobile phone was not found . But Abela was the man in a boat this summer . The Pirates of the med were drinking Petrus , Muscat’s friend started his 2 1/2 years of jail in Germany. Muscat’s consultancy customer was arrested in the USA for fraud. Will we see Muscat grabbed by the FBI? I know nothing!

Joseph
Joseph
2 years ago

The arrogance in Malta is limitless and beyond belief!

Francis Said
Francis Said
2 years ago

The Contracts Committee should black list this individual and his companies until all criminal procedures have been decided by the Court.

Jeffrey Decelis
Jeffrey Decelis
2 years ago
Reply to  Francis Said

You are innocent till proven guilty, not guilty till proven innocent.

watcher of the road
watcher of the road
2 years ago

At 29, Borg has amassed a multi-million-euro fortune, including unexplained wealth.

It is highly probable that it is not his own money but belongs to persons in power. The late Labour minister for corruption, I mean, Public Works, (the equivalent of today’s Projects Malta,) was known to have had his own persons of trust and friends who held his ill-begotten monies for him. This is how they work.

Joseph Micallef
Joseph Micallef
2 years ago

Where is the tax department to investigate the source of wealth. It is amazing how some people in this country can become multi-millionaire at practically the snap of a finger. It takes hard work, sharp business acumen and long years to achieve what some people are acquiring at a tender age.

Chan
Chan
2 years ago

The tax department is only interested in the small business owners the ones that just make ends meet. They bully them into forking out hundreds of thousands that they don’t have claiming but we believe that should have made these sales even though they have no proof. This is the state of this country. They use calculations of each bottle of wine sold equals 4 people eating a 3 course meal then they times it by 5 years. The worst thing is they don’t need proof for their claims and the courts support the corrupt institutions. Shift please look into this as people that have nothing are losing everything and being crippled by this. They don’t even care to check if you have assets to support their outrageous claims. Surely this is illegal.

OSSIE OSWALD BALZAN
OSSIE OSWALD BALZAN
2 years ago

There is no investigating lawyer at the Tax Dept.
How could There be ? At a salary of mere 1286euro every 4 weeks!!

makjavel
makjavel
2 years ago

but he is not a priest and therefore can get away with murder, so to speak.

carlos
2 years ago

Who said that the MAFIA is not being supported by a mafiosa government lead by none other than a muvument KORROTT. Don roberto is one of them.

Paul
Paul
2 years ago

it is very simple, in a normal state a person with criminal procedures cannot participate in public contracts, which is why he first took the contracts and then changed the direction

Annie
Annie
2 years ago

No criminal should be allowed or even considered for a government tender. Due diligence and KYC should have weeded him out at the start, irrelevant of who he knows.

Robert
Robert
2 years ago

Probably a front man for Labour/

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