Tumas Group received €5 million in direct orders and tenders since 2017

Since 2017, the Maltese government has handed Tumas Group at least €4,859,761.80 through direct orders and tenders

The Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation said it set out to establish how much taxpayer money was handed to Tumas Group since the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Yorgen Fenech, the group’s main shareholder, stands indicted for allegedly conspiring with others to murder the journalist in October 2017.

“The data we collected shows that at least €4,859,761.80 in public money was paid to Tumas Group, mostly through direct orders. The actual total could be higher”, the foundation said on Friday.

2017€ 8,347.46
2018€ 7,577.50
2019€ 68,346.69
2020€ 23,081.25
2021€ 97,166.72
2022€ 1,056,978.58
2023€ 3,598,263.60

It added that “the awarding of several publicly-funded direct orders to companies partly owned by an alleged murderer is suspicious”.

The foundation said this tied in with the lack of transparency in the financing of Maltese political parties, pointing out that “the sources of almost 99% of all donations to political parties between 2016 and 2019 remain undisclosed to the public”. This was raising questions about influence on public expenditure.

Cover Image: Tumas Group