The upgrading of the electricity generation plant was the flagship strategy of the Labour Party before the 2013 election. The mantra of the PL in the last 10 years has been that the Delimara power and gas project would not only reduce tariffs for consumers but would also reduce emissions, protect the environment and improve the quality of life in Malta.

The reality is that this project has been riddled with controversy since its launching in 2015. More evidence is now emerging on how this project failed to protect the public interest. It was, and still is, riddled with embedded risks in the way it was designed and implemented.

Politicians took most of the technical decisions which should have been made by experts with a solid competence in the different fields of project management. While Konrad Mizzi and Joseph Muscat are no longer protagonists in the political scene, at least officially, they still need to answer for their significant failures to ensure that consumers’ interests are always protected.

When in 2015 Electrogas, the private operators of the power station, signed a $1 billion deal to buy gas from the Azerbaijan state-owned company they agreed to pay $11.50 per unit of gas bought up to 2022. The price of gas in the last five years has fluctuated at much lower levels, and today the global average is $1.81.

The signing of a five-year hedging agreement exposed Maltese energy consumers to substantial risks in the volatile commodities markets.

Entrusting the management of this hedging agreement to a third party rather than to Enemata was another internal control that was abandoned in this botched project.

The appointment of Socar as brokers to buy the gas from Shell was another element that made this contract so damaging to the public interest.

In 2018, the government issued a convoluted justification of the different decisions taken in this project. The reality is that in these last five years, Maltese consumers have had to pay higher prices than necessary for their electricity.

Had Enemalta been a private entity in competition with other companies providing electricity to consumers, it would have faced bankruptcy because of failed commercial decisions taken by politicians.

Unfortunately, the way this project was mismanaged shows the weakness of checks on the executive powers of the government. The office of the Auditor General either does not have the resources or the expertise to challenge complex contracts that do not fit comfortably in the usual procurement templates used by public entities. 

The information coming from the revelations of the Panama Papers and the opinion expressed by international experts who commented publicly on the energy procuring contracts linked to the power station project raise serious doubts on whether this botched project was just a case of political incompetence.

Other projects, including the privatisation of the public hospitals’ management and the upgrading of facilities in St Vincent De Paul hospital, indicate a core problem of political mismanagement, and worse, that had become endemic under Muscat’s watch.

Muscat now has some sort of attachment to an Azerbaijan government-funded political think tank and lobby group. Mizzi is extending his stay in the UK for “medical reasons” which prevents him from attending parliament. Lack of accountability and impunity are still the order of the day unless this government moves from words and fine-sounding proposals on rule of law to real action in favour of justice over the squandering of the people’s assets.

Meanwhile, Maltese taxpayers continue to pay above market justified prices for their electricity.