Disagreement over fuel purchasing body

The government will be proceeding with the appointment of members of the Fuel Procurement Advisory Committee after the opposition failed to accept an invitation to nominate experts, the Ministry of Investment and IT said yesterday.

The government will be announcing the members in the coming weeks.

The ministry also published correspondence between IT Minister Austin Gatt and Labour MP Joe Mizzi about the matter.

Dr Gatt explained in a letter to Mr Mizzi that the Fuel Procurement Advisory Committee was designed to advise Enemalta's management and the CEO over the purchase of fuel used by the corporation, including the situation of the American dollar vis-à-vis the lira.

"You know as much as I do that in the past this was a politically controversial issue. The government felt that since this was a highly technical matter - which could produce positive or negative results and which had to be treated above politics - it should be dealt with by professionals.

"Therefore, Enemalta is nominating Joseph Falzon to chair the committee and would be requesting the Central Bank to nominate an expert on its behalf to sit on the committee. Enemalta would also be engaging an international advisory firm to form part of the committee.

"The corporation's financial controller and the head of the Petroleum Division or his representative will attend committee meetings but would not be members since they form part of the management team that decided on the advice given by the committee."

Dr Gatt concluded by inviting the opposition to nominate a person or persons, with the right qualifications, to form part of the committee.

In his reply, Mr Mizzi, the opposition's spokesman on infrastructural services, said the opposition agreed that the committee should be made up of technical persons. "Therefore there was no need for the opposition to suggest a person or persons for the advisory committee.

"The opposition insists that the committee should report to Parliament at least once every six months."

Replying, Dr Gatt "regretted" that the opposition was not even prepared to suggest technical persons for the committee. "At the same time I cannot comprehend - and I disagree - with the suggestion that the committee should report to Parliament. Since the committee was a technical one, Parliament did not have a role or function in it.

"The committee was structured within Enemalta with the mandate to advice the management and board of directors on commercial aspects related to the purchasing of oil by the corporation. The scrutiny of its advice was purely administrative and definitely not parliamentary or political," Dr Gatt wrote.