Former investigator Jonathan Ferris was handed a 25-bullet pointed document detailing why he was fired from the FIAU, the agency’s deputy director has said under, oath describing Ferris’ employment as “terrible”.

“I read Ferris’ testimony, and I need to clarify some things. I was a bit surprised that Ferris says he was not aware of why he was fired,” Alfred Zammit told the public inquiry into the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

“On the 2nd July 2018, a note was submitted to the tribunal with over 25 bullet points showing why Ferris was dismissed. There were lots of reasons.”

“We employed him as a manager, and we made a mistake. He was a terrible manager, but it was brought to our attention by the whole team, and we had to take action.”

Back in 2017, Ferris said he suspected he was removed from the FIAU because the agency didn’t want him digging too deeply into ongoing investigations concerning key public officials, noting that his firing came shortly after Daphne Caruana Galizia famously alleged that the Panama company Egrant belonged to the then Prime Minister’s wife.

Testifying at the public inquiry week, Ferris said he was still not aware to this day while he was removed from the FIAU.

During his testimony, Ferris made several serious statements, including a secret meeting between the Head of the Economic Crimes Unit Ian Abdilla and Zammit the evening before the FIAU submitted a report on Konrad Mizzi to a magisterial inquiry.

Ferris said that he saw the meeting on CCTV, with Zammit holding a red file, which Ferris insisted was about Konrad Mizzi.

Zammit has confirmed the meeting took place but denied there was anything secret about it, with the FIAU holding regularly holding out of office hours meetings because they work well beyond 5pm.

However, he was insistent with the public inquiry that the report did not concern Mizzi. He did not reveal what the report entailed.