Lino Briguglio appointed to oil committee

Prof. Lino Briguglio has been appointed as an independent and non-voting observer on Enemalta’s oil procurement committee.

Briguglio used to be a member of the Malta Labour Party before splitting off to found the now-defunct Partit Demokratiku Malti, that unsuccessfully contested the 1987 elections.

He is currently director of the university’s Islands and Small States Institute and has acted as government consultant to the United Nations, the World Bank and the Commonwealth.

He is the father of sociologist and former Alternattiva Demokratika chairperson Michael Briguglio.

Briguglio replaces former Nationalist minister and PN executive member Michael Falzon as independent observer within the procurement committee.

Falzon had resigned from the procurement committee in February after it was revealed in the media that he had failed to declare some €465,000 at an HSBC private bank in Geneva, Switzerland.

Enemalta’s oil procurement committee has witnessed its share of controversy in the past. Petrochemist Frank Sammut was charged in court with accepting bribes for the supply of oil to Enemalta. Prime Minister Joseph Muscat had often used Michael Falzon’s role within the committee as evidence that the government had nothing to hide with regard to oil procurement, so much so that it was willing to allow a PN executive member to observe their meetings.