Electrogas director Paul Apap Bologna is among the witnesses expected to be questioned by parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) about the Electrogas power station deal.
Times of Malta uncovered last week how Apap Bologna was behind an offshore company identical to 17 Black, the shell company linked to government corruption and owned by murder suspect and fellow Electrogas investor Yorgen Fenech.
Apap Bologna’s company Kittiwake was set up in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the summer of 2015, two months after 17 Black was established in the same region.
The timing also coincides with attempts by former energy minister Konrad Mizzi and former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri to open up UAE accounts for their Panama companies.
PAC chairman Beppe Fenech Adami confirmed to Times of Malta when contacted that the committee is hoping to question Apap Bologna during the next sitting on Wednesday.
Auditor general found multiple instances of non-compliance
Apap Bologna had originally pitched the power station project to the PN in 2008, via former minister John Dalli.
A 2018 investigation by the National Audit Office (NAO) into the Electrogas deal had flagged “multiple similarities” in the presentation about the project circulated by Apap Bologna and the eventual project undertaken by the Labour government in 2013.
However, the auditor general was unable to find evidence of a pre-election deal with Labour, particularly because investigating political parties does not fall within the NAO’s remit.
The auditor general did, however, find multiple instances of non-compliance in the winning bid by Electrogas, and possible distortion of the tendering process by the late introduction of a security of supply agreement which further reduced any risk for the winning bidder.
The NAO said all risk for the project had effectively been transferred from Electrogas onto the government.
Nexia BT’s managing partner Brian Tonna, whose firm helped set up the Panama companies for Schembri and Mizzi, sat on one of the Enemalta selection committees during the tendering process.
He has since been charged with money-laundering, along with Schembri, in an unrelated case.
Tonna claimed during a PAC sitting earlier this month that he did not know Yorgen Fenech owned 17 Black.