Much has been said of late with regards to the umpteenth financial scandal that has engulfed the Maltese government and, more specifically, the Labour Party.

This scandal is again connected to the energy sector, Enemalta in particular, and to Labour’s genius and star prodigy, Konrad Mizzi. 

Yet, we would be terribly naive if we simply watered down all this to Mizzi, Keith Schembri, Joseph Muscat and the usual suspects.

Of course, the usual suspects are again behind it.

As they are behind the Electrogas dirty contract drawn up to enrich all the people entangled in the tentacles of the 17 Black octopus.

As they are behind the Vitals scam, which has robbed the Maltese people of over €300 million plus St Luke’s, Gozo and Karin Grech hospitals.

This filthy coalition of political and business scum certainly created the conditions and enhanced the mentality that not only made all this possible but certainly also fanned the winds that fed the flames of corruption, sleaze and criminality in our country. 

However, the Mozura windfarm deal in Montenegro sheds light on other dirty dealings of another section of the Maltese financial world.

We have here a deeply rooted, capillary system of criminality that cascades down a pyramid of immorality, right down from the highly located masterminds to the least minion who turns a blind eye and, by allowing the scam to go on, renders himself complicit in these dirty financial transactions which seem to have become the rule in our country.

A few observations about this entire Montenegro swindle are a must, and maybe someone in authority can answer for once, rather than leave it in the hands of some intrepid journalist, as has become the norm.

Can someone explain how a public entity, like Enemalta, funded also by taxpayers’ money, decides to spend €10 million on an investment, by buying shares from a company in a meagrely regulated tax haven which is not known for probity?

A second group of questions to ask is: were the proper due diligence exercises carried out on this Seychelles based company, Cifidex? 

Did Enemalta ask for and obtain all necessary documents to enable it to identify the ultimate beneficial owners of this company? 

Were the necessary documents and safeguards about these beneficial owners gathered and requested?

The third group of questions which any honest little family-run business would ask in the circumstances is:  before spending €10 million of taxpayer money, did Enemalta conduct the necessary feasibility studies? 

Apart from 17 Black and its cronies, who else has dipped his finger in this pie?- Arnold Cassola

Was the necessary due diligence on the Mozura wind farm conducted?

Did Enemalta obtain the necessary data and studies to evaluate the rate of return on the investment it was spending? 

Were any wind analyses made on site?  And what about the cost analysis of the wind turbines? 

Were the underlying legal terms and conditions of the concession studied? Did Enemalta obtain audited financial statements of the Mozura project? 

All of this should have been discussed at board meetings of the corporation. Discussed and minuted.

Has anyone asked for these minutes? Have the auditors reviewed any of the above?

Have the auditors carried out the necessary tests on the value of the investment made by Enemalta? Have the directors sitting on the board of the corporation asked any of the above questions?

And then, why haven’t the police raided the offices of Enemalta and its auditors to obtain the working papers?

And what about the Malta Stock Exchange? It should right now be raising hell and asking for truckloads of documents and testimonies of the board, CEO, auditors, and so on to ensure that the workings at this public listed entity are clean.

As I write, we do not have any real answer to these questions.

What we do really know (thanks to Manuel Delia) is that Frederick Azzopardi, the man who is destroying the face of our country through Infrastructure Malta, signed a deal whereby Enemalta bought the shares from Cividex for €3.5 million.

But then, Enemalta declared in its 2015 accounts that the company had “purchased 100 per cent ownership of Mozura for €10.3 million”.

Apart from 17 Black and its cronies, who else has dipped his finger in this pie?

The Enemalta board of directors is responsible for these actions. They have a duty of care towards the company first, and its stakeholders after. 

If they did not ask the above questions and did not seek the above information prior to sealing the deal, they certainly did not do their job properly. 

We Maltese taxpayers want full disclosure on what really happened.

Arnold Cassola is former secretary general, European Green Party.