Austin Gatt on Enemalta fuel procurement: ‘I’m not interested’

Former Nationalist minister Austin Gatt has declared he is not interested in the findings of a damning report by the Auditor General on the state of Enemalta's fuel procurement committee during his tenure in government between 2008 and 2010.

"I am not interested in anything you are writing," Gatt, formerly the investments minister under whose responsibility Enemalta fell, told MaltaToday.

The former minister, who also captained the Nationalists' electoral campaign in 2013, calmly reiterated that he "was not interested" when pressed on the fact that the NAO's report specifically dealt with Enemalta during his time as minister.

Enemalta was later passed under the responsibility of finance minister Tonio Fenech in early 2010.

"If you want a general comment, the comment I keep telling everyone, is that I am now out of the political scene," he said.

Gatt is now chairman of the Hili Group, a major player in the maritime industry.

In its scathing report on Enemalta's fuel procurement committee between 2008 and mid-2011, the NAO flagged the lack of a policy framework by which the committee operated between 2008 and 2010.

Prior to the formulation of a fuel procurement policy in January 2011, Enemalta's fuel procurement function "was effectively operating in a policy vacuum", the NAO said.

The inquiry found poor instances of record-keeping and corresponding fuel procurement meeting minutes lacked "the most rudimentary level of detail and bore no information relating to meeting discussions and decisions taken".

"Besides being handwritten and mostly undecipherable, these minutes also lacked a basic record of Committee members present," the NAO said, adding it found it a problem to effectively audit the decision-making process.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has called on Opposition leader Simon Busuttil to issue "a clear statement" on the shortcomings flagged by the Auditor General.

"We are talking about government's biggest procurement, and the matter becomes more serious due to the presidential pardon given on a case involving the procurement of fuel by Enemalta," Muscat said yesterday.

Pointing out that the NAO's report was not commissioned by the Labour administration - but on request of Labour MP Leo Brincat during the preceding, Nationalist government - Muscat said someone should shoulder the responsibility for the "abysmal shortcomings" and that Busuttil must come out with a clear stand.

He also questioned whether Gatt's successor, Tonio Fenech, had taken all measures to address the problems.

"As Prime Minister, I cannot understand how the procurement of fuel which runs into millions of euros every month, were taken as if it were four people meeting for coffee with limited minutes jotted down," he said.

The report however does concede that "real and tangible progress was subsequently registered from mid-2011 onwards".

Following a Cabinet reshuffle in 2010, the ministerial responsibility of Enemalta was transferred to Tonio Fenech.

"It is very difficult for me to comment on the actual NAO report, since it focused on what happened before I took over the corporation," Fenech told MaltaToday.

"If anything, the report gives me the biggest certificate as it recognises the necessary steps which had to take place and which I took."

Fenech, now the Opposition's spokesman for finance, said he had immediately commissioned a review of the tendering procedure and a specific policy was drawn up.

"We modified it to make the process more transparent, something which the Auditor General acknowledges," he said.

Fenech insisted he did his best to improve the situation when he took over in 2010. "I felt fuel procurement was a sensitive issue and the review commissioned had brought about recommendations which were implemented effectively," he said.

Fenech said at the time, no one knew about the oil scandal and his decision to make the committee more transparent had stemmed from his "own initiative".

Reacting to the Prime Minister's comments, Fenech said if he thought there were other shortcomings which were not addressed, he should then "explain why the same Enemalta management was retained".

Acknowledging the poor record-keeping was "a serious failure", he insisted this was not a minister's responsibility but the management's.