Company linked to Keith Schembri providing equipment to Electrogas

Emails and documents leaked from power station consortium Electrogas show that Berner Malta, a company co-owned by the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff Keith Schembri, is earning money through the power station project, The Sunday Times of Malta has reported.

The newspaper said that invoices showed that the company Schembri co-owns with businessman Malcom Scerri made more than €40,000 through supplying equipment to Electrogas.

Berner Malta, which sells tools and equipment, was set up two months after the Labour Party was elected in 2013, and had also been entrusted with other smaller-scale contracts and government direct orders. 

Schembri told the newspaper that the company had started doing business in 2012, has an annual turnover of €1.7 million and supplied recognised brands. The company was not set up to supply the power station, he said.

The report comes as emails published last week revealed that €1.3 million was transferred into 17 Black, a Dubai company which was named as a “target client” for the Panama companies of Keith Schembri and tourism minister Konrad Mizzi.

The emails were released by the Daphne Project, an investigation by more than 18 media organisations.

Schembri later admitted that 17 Black and another company, Macbridge, were included in draft business plans for his business group as potential clients. He denied, however, that any of the companies ever became clients of his business group or that any transactions had taken place involving them.