Think The Godfather movies. They pale next to what we’re living. In today’s episode, for example, I will zero in some more on the Gasan family’s involvement in the Electrogas power station deal whereby we Maltese citizens have ended up paying €40 million in taxes that they refused to pay because they wanted more gold in their treasure chest.
Today’s focus will be on a particular branch of the Gasan family: Joe Gasan’s niece, Greta. Greta is an interior designer who used to have her workshop in Lija. I pass by it every time I walk the dog, and it’s been closed for a while – probably because she no longer needs that income, seeing as along with her mother, her sister, and her three brothers she has a stake in the Gasans’ 35 per cent portion of the Electrogas cake.
I am directing the focus on her in particular because she is married to a certain Paul Apap Bologna. Incidentally, Paul and his sister together have 21 per cent portion of that same cake.
In fact, Apap Bologna was the main salesman of the Electrogas power station project. Back in 2010, he had tried to pitch the idea to the PN in government. He gave the then general secretary Paul Borg Oliver a PowerPoint presentation, telling him that the Gasans were on it too.
PN said no. So, he trotted off to Labour. And the next thing we know, the project was taken on by the new Labour government in 2013.
Apap Bologna became the main Maltese director on the board of Electrogas, together with the Azeri representative from SOCAR and the German director from Siemens. He is one of those who fumed at having to pay the €40 million taxes.
In the meantime, Apap Bologna had become a close friend of Joseph Muscat, of his chief of staff Keith Schembri, of Konrad Mizzi and of Edward Zammit Lewis, the text-buddy of Yorgen Fenech, an alleged mastermind of Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination.
And in true Godfather fashion, where “friendship is more than talent, it is more than government, it is almost the equal of family”, that hefty tax bill was waived off and lumped on us, the citizens.
It is perhaps interesting to note that Apap Bologna is also a board director of a company that is also involved in a multi-million-euro medical marijuana production project. The company, Nuuvera Malta, is audited by – surprise, surprise – Nexia BT: the same company that opened the secret companies of Schembri and Muscat.
The government had already promised Nuuvera and Apap Bologna advantageous financial support through ‘investment schemes’ even before parliament passed the legislation giving the green light for the manufacture of medical cannabis in Malta. Knowing what we know now about Apap Bologna’s credentials, shouldn’t any agreement or deal entered into be revised? Indeed, let’s go one step further: any contract that the government made under the tenure of Muscat must be investigated at this point.
On October 16, to mark the third anniversary of the assassination of a journalist in a democratic EU country, he must declare the Electrogas agreement null and void- Kristina Chetcuti
However, it is clear that to pull through this dark period, we, as citizens, must work together. A friend was telling me about a conversation she had last week with an acquaintance of hers who was appalled by the Gasans’ rotten meddling in the Electrogas deal.
Acquaintance: “I’m shocked. I’ve known them for years. They’re my friends.”
My friend: “So stop seeing them. You’ve got lousy friends.”
Acquaintance: “Oh well, I don’t see them all the time… it’s just at parties and so on.”
Are we that cheap? Happy to be bought by caviar, networking and hobnobbing even if it means dragging our country and our children into the gutter?
If we can’t bring ourselves to refuse a dinner invitation, then we are part of the reason why Caruana Galizia was killed. We are approving of corruption with our lifestyle, and we’re telling everyone that it’s fine to just trample all over us as long as we get a glass of bubbly.
Next month it will be three years from Daphne’s assassination – three whole years and as yet no form of justice has been served for her, for her family or for Malta.
Last week, Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne told the public inquiry how Joseph Muscat had told him “we solved it” when Daphne’s killers were caught. To quote The Godfather, it was a lie but he believed in telling lies to people. And unfortunately, it seems that our not-so-new prime minister also wants to believe that lie and wants to close the lid on more evidence surfacing the murky waters.
The public inquiry has gone on for far too long, Robert Abela said, so it must be wrapped up by December come what may. Surely, this is not him speaking?
This is the voice of those whose interest it is for the story to be forgotten once and for all. The voice of the people who risk jail.
It looks increasingly likely that Caruana Galizia was killed because of what she was going to unearth on the Electrogas agreement.
Therefore, Prime Minister Abela has only one task apart from leaving the inquiry to run its full course.
On October 16, to mark the third anniversary of the assassination of a journalist in a democratic EU country, he must declare the Electrogas agreement null and void.
Only then, when the worms are starved off their feed, will they start crawling out of the woodwork and divulge all about the crime behind their successful fortune.
krischetcuti@gmail.com
Twitter: @krischetcuti