[WATCH] Live blog of public accounts committee hearing on Enemalta fuel procurement

Welcome to MaltaToday's live blog of the PAC hearing into the Auditor General's audit of Enemalta's fuel procurement policy

EXPLAINER | Auditor General's report on Enemalta fuel procurement

Enemalta's petroleum division manager Philip Borg is currently testifying before the Public Accounts Committee scrutinising the Auditor General's report on Enemalta's fuel procurement between 2008 and mid-2011.

Current manager of Enemalta's petroleum division, Philip Borg said that in 2004 he started attending the Fuel procurement Committee meetings, representing the petroleum division.

He adds that there were instances when fuel purchased by the state utility would have been marginally off SPEC. 

MP Justyne Caruana tabled a document from 2011 which shows that the sulphur content in leaded gasoline purchased by Enemalta were below standard, with a 30% variation in sulphur content. Caruana said that she obtained the document in a confidential manner. Borg said that he could not recall any such instance.

Borg adds that if the sample was taken directly from the gasoline stored on a ship, the analysis could represent the real quality of the oil. He says that he could not take action in regards to the higher sulphur content because the readings taken were influenced by the environment.  

The manager admitted that he did receive analysis reports on the quality of oils after being prompted by MP Justyne Caruana. He adds that whenever he received such reports by email, he would normally forward the results to the electricity division. Borg said that although he was in the loop, he was not responsible for accepting or rejecting fuels.

The consequences of out of SPEC fuels were mainly manifested in emissions, Borg said. Asked who was responsible for such decisions, Borg said that the electricity division manager Peter Grima was responsible. 

He said there must be an explanation why the fuel was accepted despite being out of SPEC, such as being requested purposely by the electricity division given that the differences in the sulphur levels were substantial.  "There must be a reason, but I do not know what the reason is."

MP Caruana asks Borg why Enemalta would have accepted fuels which were substantially out of SPEC in clear breach of EU directives. PAC chairman Jason Azzopardi says that Borg is not the right person to answer why the fuels were substantially out of SPEC.He insists that he was only speculating, however the only reason he could think of was that the electricity division must have required a higher level of sulphur to carry out some experiment. 

Borg confirms that he was interviewed by the Auditor General's office on at least two occasions during the compilation of the report on oil procurement.