The Nationalist Party has demanded a government explanation after a report  that Enemalta CEO Jonathan Cardona was fired in the wake of last month's power outages and moved to the Occupational Health and Safety Authority.

The report was carried by The Shift, but the government has not reacted yet, shadow minister Mark Anthony Sammut said on Tuesday. 

He said the government should be transparent about the developments at Enemalta. It needed to confirm or deny the report and was it correct that Cardona's move was ordered directly by the prime minister?

"What role that Enemalta's board have? And what credentials did Cardona have to head the OHSA," he asked.

If confirmed, the report showed that the prime minister was recognising that responsibility should be borne for the outages and this was caused by incompetence and lack of planning. It also belied Robert Abela's claims that the issues were the result of hot weather and climate change, Sammut said.  

This also confirmed a system of musical chairs where the government had thrown meritocracy overboard in the appointment of people to critical posts.