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Adrian Delia Urges Caution On Suspended Malta Fisheries Head: ‘We Must Tread Carefully’

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Opposition leader Adrian Delia has called for caution with regards the case of suspended Fisheries Department director general Andreina Fenech Farrugia, warning that the evidence against her remains very scarce and that this could be part of “a much larger issue”.

“The information out there is still very limited,” Delia said during an interview with Lovin Malta. “We need to understand whether this is something personal, in the sense that is limited or restricted to a one-person issue, or whether there is an issue that becomes political insofar as the involvement of political people.”

Asked whether the government was right to suspend Fenech Farrugia, Delia paused for a moment before stating that he didn’t think they had much choice “because the allegations are pretty serious”.

“However, the information out there today remains allegations,” he said. “We need to see what kind of investigation will be conducted and by whom. My primary concern is whether this is part of a much larger issue. Right now, it seems there are a lot of allegations and a lot of speculative assumptions.”

“I read a lot about this in the newspapers, but formal documented evidence is very scarce at the moment, at least on my table,” Delia continued. “But yes, I’ve seen a lot of things being written and we need to tread carefully. Very simply, however, if there is wrongdoing then there has to be consequences, if there is an illegality there has to be further consequences, and if there is political involvement there has to be political responsibility. This measure applies across the board in all areas.”

Tunafarm

A diver explores a Maltese tuna farm. Photo: YouTube – Diving in tuna farm, Malta 2011

The interview was carried out a few hours before Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi tabled an investigation that the Internal Audit and Investigations Department had carried out in 2010 and which uncovered a number serious breaches by the tuna industry during Fenech Farrugia’s first tenure as Fisheries director.

Fenech Farrugia was suspended from her job last week after Spanish paper El Confidencial published phone intercepts showing how she had asked Mare Blu director Jose Fuentes Garcia for payment in return for higher fish quotas.

The transcripts, which were intercepted during a Spanish crackdown on illegal tuna trading, also show that Fenech Farrugia had used a mobile phone number whose SIM card was registered by More Blu’s parent company Ricardo Fuentes e Hijos.

Fenech Farrugia has pledged innocence, insisting that she was “singled out” in a wide-reaching investigation, that payments made to her in return for quota increases were always regular and that the published transcripts were poorly translated to Spanish and easily misinterpretable.

Despite fish farm operators claiming that Fenech Farrugia always favoured Fuentes during negotiations and an internal inquiry ascertaining that the Spanish kingpin was given an unfair market advantage, there is also evidence that the Fisheries Department had reported Mare Blu to the police for illegal fishing practices.

READ NEXT: WATCH: Joseph Muscat Plays Down Reinstatement Of Fisheries Director: ‘Not A Single Adverse Comment In Her File’

Tim is interested in the rapid evolution of human society and is passionate about justice, human rights and cutting-edge political debates. You can follow him on Instagram or Twitter/X at @timdiacono or reach out to him at [email protected]

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