AD wants energy minister to explain parties’ unpaid bills

Alternattiva Demokratika wants energy minister Konrad Mizzi to explain why the major political parties owe €2.5 million in energy and water bills as revealed by MaltaToday.

Prime Minister and Labour leader Joseph Muscat has himself confirmed that his party owes €600,000 in unpaid water and electricity bills.

The Nationalist Party has bills running up to €1.9 million.

AD is insisting to know why the political parties have been given preferential treatment.

“Now that the facts have been established, we expect the Minister to explain the situation and inform the public how ARMS Ltd will recover the outstanding amounts,” AD’s spokesperson on energy Ralph Cassar said.

“While the public is expected to pay its water and electricity bills in time or incur penalties or even disconnection, both leading political parties seem to have enjoyed particular privileges.”

AD’s chairperson Arnold Cassola said Mizzi should also explain why the management of ARMS Ltd, Enemalta and the Water Services Commission have failed to take any action against the two parties under both Nationalist and Labour-leading administrations.

“This ‘you scratch mine, I scratch yours’ attitude gives a new meaning to the government’s mantra of ‘Malta Taghna Lkoll’… the new understanding is preferential treatment for both parties,” Cassola said.

Last Sunday, MaltaToday revealed that the Nationalist and Labour parties have outstanding bills of a combined €2.5 million, which they have owed to Enemalta and the Water Services Corporations for years.

Information seen by this newspaper confirmed years of speculation that both parties have enjoyed secret amnesties on their electricity and water bills.

ARMS have beefed up their credit control department as they put more pressure on many of their clients to pay up for their accumulated electricity and water bills.
But as things stand, neither Labour nor the heavily-indebted Nationalist Party are in any state of financial health to settle the pending amounts.

Freedom of Information request

The Freedom of Information appeals tribunal is currently reviewing an appeal by MaltaToday, on the refusal by the Information and Data Protection Commissioner (IDPC) to overturn ARMS’s refusal to disclose information on the monies owed by the political parties to Enemalta and the Water Services Corporation.

MaltaToday believes that political parties have for years enjoyed protracted terms of payment, by being accorded repayment programmes that common taxpayers are not granted, and other sorts of benefits by the state-owned utility companies.

MaltaToday has told ARMS and the IDPC that consumers are at a disadvantage to political parties, which cannot be considered “normal clients” as ARMS insists they are.

“We tried to insist with ARMS, and the IDPC, that political parties field for election the very people who might end up being energy minister, or Enemalta chairman, or WSC chairman, even chief executive.

“The incestuous relationship between party and state in Malta is symbolised by the fact that ARMS has granted political parties extremely generous terms of credit on their pending energy bills,” Matthew Vella, editor maltatoday.com.mt, who filed the FOIA request, said.

ARMS refused the request, applying an Article 5 exemption, because ARMS was a commercial company owned by the government.

MaltaToday appealed the refusal, saying the IDPC had not carried out an appropriate public interest test on whether disclosing the information would be of more benefit to the public, than were it to be kept secret.

In its submissions to the IDPC appeals tribunal, MaltaToday insisted that ARMS was benefiting from a wide array of legal exemptions that allowed it to treat political parties on the same footing as consumers.

“In reality, they are not. Parties field candidates who on being elected, are eligible to be appointed minister responsible for ARMS. In the last election, unsuccessful candidates were appointed chairmen and chief executives of Enemalta, WSC, and ARMS,” Vella said.