One of the adjudicators who awarded a power station project to the Electrogas consortium asked Yorgen Fenech for a job, a few years after giving his consortium the lucrative contract.
David Galea, described as a leading figure in the decision to approve the Electrogas bid, testified before parliament’s public accounts committee on Tuesday.
The committee is discussing a 2018 evaluation of the power station process by the National Audit Office, which found multiple instances of non-compliance with minimum requirements to win the bid.
Galea told the bi-partisan committee that he had approached Fenech with a business proposal in 2018. He had given the Tumas Group a proposal to offer his services to review their gaming businesses.
Fenech is a shareholder in the Electrogas consortium and served as its frontman, a court has heard. He currently stands charged with complicity in the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Galea defended his decision to approach Fenech, saying he was no longer involved in state energy arm Enemalta at that point. Opposition members of the committee pointed out, however, that he had already played a major role in handing Fenech’s consortium a hefty contract.
“So does that mean I can never do any work with anyone?” Galea retorted.
Ally of Konrad Mizzi
Suspicions have long been raised that a pre-election deal had been struck between Labour and the Electrogas investors, chief among whom was its former director Yorgen Fenech.
Fenech has since been revealed to be a close friend of former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri, and shared Whatsapp chats with former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat even after he became a suspect in the Caruana Galizia murder.
Weeks after Labour swept to power, Galea was appointed as the programme director for the new power station project.
Galea, a close associate of former Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi, spent much of Tuesday’s two-hour hearing being asked to recount a meeting he had at the Labour Party’s headquarters prior to the 2013 general election.
2012 meeting at Labour HQ
During his first session before the committee, held last week, Galea testified how he had helped the PL draw up its energy plans in the run-up to the 2013 vote.
Galea was unable to provide many details of a meeting he held at the party's headquarters, despite being asked at length about it during Tuesday’s session.
He recalled bumping into former finance minister Edward Scicluna during the meeting but said he did not remember seeing former prime minister Joseph Muscat or his right-hand-man Keith Schembri there.
At one point during the session, government members of the committee almost drew the meeting to a close as they moved to request a ruling from the speaker over what they claimed was unprofessional conduct.
As Opposition MPs pressed Galea to name those present at the PL HQ meeting held back in 2012, government members of the committee argued that the repeated questioning was a form of witness intimidation.
The sitting, however, proceeded.
Galea offered a brief defence of the government’s fuel hedging agreements, saying that prior to 2013, 70 per cent of Enemalta’s total cost was related to fuel. At that time, fuel prices were very volatile and a 1 per cent increase in fuel prices could impact the bottom line by 9 per cent, he said.
A 5 per cent increase in fuel prices, therefore could result in a 45 per cent loss in profitability.
“It was an issue that needed to be addressed,” he said.
Galea will be called to testify before the committee again later this month.