Reno Bugeja turns a minister’s grilling into an art

As head of news at TVM, Reno Bugeja may have to contend with the job of producing even-handed bulletins that must also please his masters.

But as presenter of Dissett, he has lost none of his sharp-edged wit and impatient questioning, as amply shown in his grilling of Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi earlier this week.

Mizzi was explaining that it was China Power Investments, the state-owned Chinese company that will acquire a reported €200 million in Enemalta shares, that made its approach to Malta Enterprise back in April 2013.

"This is a government-to-government agreement," Mizzi said when asked why a strategic partner had not been chosen by a global call for expressions of interest. "There are no commission agents here, so it is very advantageous for the government."

While Mizzi boasted of the fact that UK Chancellor George Osborne was himself welcoming Chinese investment in its nuclear power framework, Bugeja faced Mizzi with a copy of a Davos summit newsletter - one published during the time Joseph Muscat was present when signing the Chinese memorandum of understanding - citing an international survey showing Chinese firms faced a global trust gap.

"CPI have a triple-A credit rating; they are very good investors."

And it was here that the wily Bugeja slipped the newsletter over to Mizzi, cueing up for his next question: "I suggest you pass this on to your wife, it might be helpful for her in her job as envoy to Asia," was his sardonic comment.

Mizzi replied with his trademark guilelessness, exchanging the BBC report he had in hand with Bugeja, who then went on to ask him whether it was a smart move to have his wife, Sai Mizzi Liang, appointed as an investment envoy in Shanghai.

"Sai was chosen by Malta Enterprise and she's charged up for doing a good job," Mizzi said.

"We're coping well. We have a good family and a trusting relationship," Mizzi said when asked whether the arrangement would not strain his family relationship.

Sai Mizzi, who is Chinese, will be paid at least €33,000, apart from allowances - which the Opposition claims will touch €100,000 - to represent Malta Enterprise in Shanghai.

Mizzi was faced with a grilling on the choice of the ElectroGas consortium, which, apart from its Maltese partners, George Fenech and Joe Gasan, of the Tumas and Gasan groups, respectively, includes British firm Gasol plc, Siemens and Azerbaijani state-owned gas company SOCAR.

Faced with claims that a Gasol director had acquired a massive amount of shares prior to the tender award, Mizzi shrugged off the allegation. "I'd laugh that off. We never met Gasol before the election," he said of the gas project, which Labour proposed during the March 2013 election campaign. "And we ran a very fair and transparent process. The price was our determining factor. Due diligence studies were based on the financial information they passed on to us and on the advice of our consultants."

Mizzi also said that the gas plant, at a €370 million capital cost, according to Gasol plc, will be delivered by the first half of 2015 as stipulated by the government, disputing Gasol's claims that the project would take 18 months to complete after "months of negotiations" with the government.

"We will close negotiations in the coming weeks. It is possible to have the project completed within the timeline we proposed. We were clear with the bidder on this timeframe."

The ElectroGas consortium will be providing fixed prices on electricity generation for five years, contrary to Labour's electoral pledge to have prices fixed for 10 years. "We will have price stability up to 2020. After that year, prices will be determined by a formula we have provided that will be tagged to an international index: it will be cheaper than oil and we will be able to hedge on gas prices," Mizzi said, saying he expected new gas reserves in the future to offer greater supply and lower prices.

Prices of electricity generation are expected to be decreased from 18c per unit to 10c per unit.

He dispelled claims that the government's intention to lower electricity prices in March 2014, despite warnings from credit rating agency Moody's of fiscal slippages affecting Enemalta's soaring debt, was a populist attempt at raking in votes in time for the European elections.

"Far from it. We're hitting our timelines. People need these exaggerated tariffs decreased, and it will give a multiplier effect that will go towards industry and jobs."

Bugeja challenged Mizzi on the conflicts of interest of three MEPA board members who had been drafted as technical experts on the gas plant's environment impact assessment, and also formed part of the ElectroGas consortium.

"We have a list of 20 consultants involved in the EIA. I don't go into whether they should have been taken on as advisors or formed part of the consortium," Mizzi said.

But as Bugeja pointed out, it will be government-appointed representatives on the MEPA board that will ultimately be deciding on the EIA of the new gas plant.

The minister claimed that better hedging on the price of oil had enabled Enemalta to reap savings on its electricity generation, although a report by Moody's recently revealed that €36 million in savings were generated from the BWSC turbines running on heavy fuel oil.

"The current savings are not enough, especially because the maintenance of the BWSC turbines are costly apart from the price of the fuel oil. That's why we need a new plant."

He also defended a decision not to switch to gasoil from HFO, as pledged when in Opposition. "The logistics were impossible. While it is possible to switch the turbines from HFO to gasoil, our fuel tanks are small and we would have to empty them and clean them thoroughly before going for gasoil."

He was also put on the defence on his party's criticism of David Spiteri Gingell, formerly Enemalta's deputy chairman during the time the corporation chose BWSC for the Delimara extension, whom Mizzi retained as a consultant. "Spiteri Gingell is an expert on renewable energy. The BWSC issue is another matter... he told the PAC he couldn't work under the former finance minister, who has a lot to answer for. Tonio Fenech left a massacre inside Enemalta."