Enemalta fuel procurement will change, minister says

Energy minister Konrad Mizzi says he will render Enemalta's fuel procurement system more transparent, after an investigation by the National Audit Office surmised that there was political interference into the way the state utility purchased its fuel.

The Auditor said this practice went against fundamental principles of good governance.

Emails on fuel purchases and hedging were copied to the minister responsible for Enemalta, and €69 million was lost on hedging alone, the NAO report found. "When Tonio Fenech says he did the best he could, for me that's not enough. He knew what was going on," Mizzi said of his predecessor.

Fenech took over Enemalta as finance minister in 2010, from investments minister Austin Gatt. On his part, Gatt - who has retired from politics - has gone on record stating he "does not care" about the NAO's findings.

"If these things happened under my watch, I would have said enough is enough; I would have resigned," Mizzi said, taking exception at the way the Enemalta risk management committee failed to take down minutes of its meetings, or just filed scribbles on notepads as records of its meetings.

The Auditor, in his report, refers to this lack of documentation as "abysmal".

"The NAO found it impossible to understand why certain decisions had been taken, because no documentation existed to back them up, especially when it came to the process of awarding tenders to bidders whose offer was not the most favourable," Mizzi said, who in a press conference at the Auberge de Castille said the Labour government would not work in this manner.

"I expected the Opposition to read the NAO report and analyse it like the government did. Instead, it only issued a four-paragraph reaction. A four-paragraph reaction to a 400-page report. This shows the PN is not willing to learn from its previous mistakes."

Mizzi also said that the bad practices adopted by the former administration led to decreased interest in investment by international multinationals, who would have been discourage by a "rigged process".

Mizzi said he will be meeting with the Auditor within the coming weeks in order to discuss the report, and will then hold a workshop for Enemalta employees in a bid to implement the necessary recommendations on the purchase of fuel.

Mizzi has also appointed former PN member Michael Falzon, who Mizzi says "has everybody's respect", as an independent observer on the oil procurement committee.

"Falzon will have a free hand to report wrongdoings he observes, with no interference from us," Mizzi said, adding this was proof of the Labour government's commitment to transparency.