Finance Minister Edward Scicluna has intimated that the government is not to blame for certain acts of corruption. 

“You cannot blame the victim because a robber has been to his house and stolen. It is important that once you discover things, you report them and you investigate them”, Scicluna said in response to questions by Times of Malta on the Montenegro wind farm scandal. 

Video: Malta Today.

A Times of Malta and Reuters investigation revealed how Enemalta agreed to pay €10.3 million for a wind farm in Montenegro, when the same site was worth a third of the price a couple of weeks before. 

Murder suspect Yorgen Fenech secretly made €4.6 million off the deal via his company 17 Black, which leaked Panama Papers emails linked to secret companies owned by former minister Konrad Mizzi and former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri.

Scicluna ‘disgusted’

Echoing Prime Minister Robert Abela, Scicluna expressed his disgust about the revelations and acknowledged suspicions about the deal. 

“There will be investigations to see if it was inside information [or] corruption. These things should not happen”.

Scicluna said it was not always possible to identify abuse in real-time. 

“If you have a house and somebody comes at night and steals something, you might discover a year later that you have something missing. One should not dramatise the situation. These things happen. What counts is the action you take once you find out”.

Panama Papers inaction

Evidence linking former OPM chief of staff Schembri and former Energy Minister Mizzi to suspect dealings first began to emerge through the Panama Papers leak in 2016

An e-mail later uncovered from the leaked cache of e-mails shows the two men planned to receive up to €2 million from 17 Black. 

Pressed about the government inaction over the Panama Papers four years ago, where some of the potential “robbers” were already identified, Scicluna insisted he had made his view known internally at the time. 

“I expressed my opinion in cabinet, in the parliamentary group and with the prime minister – both the previous one and the current one,” Scicluna said. 

He walked off without saying what those views were when asked. 

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