[WATCH] Government MPs take Muscat’s cue in requesting NAO cost-benefit analysis report on Electrogas project

Government MPs on the Public Accounts Committee want a National Audit Office report to carry out a cost–benefit analysis on the Electrogas project.

The idea was first floated by former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat during his Tuesday afternoon testimony before the PAC.

“I feel when the PAC investigation is over, the NAO should do another report to analyse the cost-benefit analysis of the project to see how much the people benefitted from it,” Muscat told the PAC.

Tourism Minister Clayton Bartolo took the cue from Muscat and asked the committee to take up his suggestion.

Committee chair Darren Carabott reminded Bartolo that all he needed was three committee votes. The government has four.

Tuesday’s sitting continued in the spirit of earlier PAC testimonies, with government and opposition members cross-debating throughout the whole session.

The sitting was peppered with snipes and remarks from committee members, with Muscat and government MPs telling Carabott he was going beyond the remit of the committee with his questions.

“You want to be judge, jury and executioner,” Clayton Bartolo told Carabott after he at one point said that he believes that his questions fall within the committee’s remit.

Carabott’s first question to Muscat, where he asked the former PM to explain why he felt Konrad Mizzi was the most competent person to head the energy ministry.

Muscat came out swinging, saying that while he would be answering Carabott’s question, it was not in line with the committee remit.

The former PM was also asked a number of times on his decision to retain Mizzi and his former Chief of Staff Keith Schembri, following revelations on their offshore companies from the Panama Papers.

He said that following reports, he had sat them down and asked them why they needed the offshore accounts.

“They gave me their reasons which are now in public fora. They told me that the €2 million would be coming from their private business, and I believed them,” Muscat said.

Asked how he assumed that they would not be receiving money as kickbacks from the Electrogas project, he said the committee would be descending into a political debate, and he had no issue with it.

When asked whether the reports surrounding their offshore accounts had raised any red flags (xegħlulek bozza ħamra), Muscat said red flags were raised when he saw the Enemalta accounts.

“Alarm bells went off when I saw Enemalta drowning in debt,” he said.“The Opposition plan was for Enemalta to fail, BOV to go down with it, our financial system would fail and we would get a bailout.”

The former PM was also asked about his relationship with alleged Daphne Caruana Galizia murdermastemin Yorgen Fenech.

He said he met him around 2009 together with his father George Fenech. Asked when he got to know that 17 Black belonged to Yorgen Fenech, Muscat replies that he got to know of this through the media.  He describes the relationship between them as one which developed into a "friendship."

Muscat says he had no form of conversation with Fenech about 17 Black.