Konrad Mizzi rejects PN newspaper’s LNG story as ‘tall tale’

The Office of the Prime Minister has rubbished a report carried today by PN news organ il-mument in which it claimed that a company whose director is the uncle of former energy minister Konrad Mizzi – now minister without portfolio inside the Office of the Prime Minister – was “specifically hired by the government” for the transportation of anchors for the LNG storage unit.

The report claimed that eight anchors weighing around 40 tonnes each have arrived in Malta and will be used to moor the liquefied natural gas tanker at Delimara, inside the Marsaxlokk harbour. The newspaper claimed that one of the companies involved in the supply and installation of these anchors was Med Sea Shipping Agent.

One of the directors of the company is Teddy Vassallo, the uncle of minister Konrad Mizzi.

The front-page story of il-mument claimed that Konrad Mizzi had a conflict interest after the government hired a company, whose director is uncle to the former energy minister

The report was quoted by Opposition leader Simon Busuttil who during his interview on the party’s radio station on Sunday morning said the latest allegations of nepotism were “insulting”.

However, on Sunday, the report, as well as Simon Busuttil’s subsequent comments, were dismissed by the Office of the Prime Minister as “yet another tall tale”, saying the Delimara project was run by the private sector with no government intervention.

Following the report, the government said it had asked Electrogas – the energy consortium which will build the LNG plan as well as run the plant and sell the LNG to Enemalta – to provide details over the allegations.

“The Electrogas consortium said it hired a company called Vryhof to design, supply and install anchors for the Floating Storage Unit. Vryhof hired Ocean Installer to supply mooring chains and Ocean Installer hired a Chinese firm to supply some chain materials.”

“The Chinese firm then hired a shipping company to transport the material. The shipping employed a Maltese agent,” it said.

The Office of the Prime Minister said the Nationalist Party and its Simon Busuttil were twisting facts to score political points and argued that the Opposition had lost all arguments on the energy sector.