PN: Electrogas deal smacks of corruption

Report by Stefan Paul Galea

The Nationalist Party has reiterated its opposition to the gas-fired power station inaugurated on Monday evening, with shadow energy minister Marthese Portelli describing it as the “monument of corruption”.

Flanked by PN candidate Mark Anthony Sammut, Portelli argued that the deal signed with Electrogas raised “obvious questions”. The agreement, approved by the European Commission, sees the consortium supplying electrical energy and gas to Enemalta for 18 years. EelectroGas has also signed a 10-year contract to procure its LNG supplies from Socar, Azerbaijan’s state oil company.

During a ceremony transmitted live on television, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and OPM minister Konrad Mizzi yesterday turned off the last turbine fired by heavy fuel oil.

“Yesterday’s power station inauguration raises a lot of serious suspicions and obvious questions, because this deal was made by Konrad Mizzi,” Portelli said, in a press conference at the Nationalist Party headquarters this afternoon.

She linked her statements with revelations that Mizzi had opened a trust in the New Zealand with an attached company in Panama. Mizzi has was stripped of his energy portfolio, although he still remained on as a minister within the Office of the Prime Minister, overseeing the completion of the energy project.

“The Prime Minister is continuously twisting facts in his favour,” Portelli claimed, adding that a lot of secrecy surrounded the energy deal.

“The first priority for then-energy minister Konrad Mizzi following the deal, was to open Panama company Hearnville Inc. When one analyses the government’s deal with Electrogas, one cannot but question his intentions,” Portelli claimed.

She reiterated that decisions taken were clearly not in the interest of people or for the interests of those who have accounts in Panama.
She also criticised the government for selling its stake in Enemalta for €320 million to Shanghai Electric, reminding how the individual who had negotiated with the government also had a secret company opened for him by Nexia BT, in the British Virgin Islands.

Asked by MaltaToday to state how important it was for the enquiry to verify the allegations conclusively, Portelli replied that “it’s very unfortunate that the inquiry was ordered at a very late stage”.  

“Joseph Muscat had said that he sees no wrong in having a minister with a company in Panama; yet his reaction towards the latest allegations in his regard are not the same.”