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2 maltatoday EXECUTIVE EDITOR Matthew Vella MANAGING EDITOR Saviour Balzan Letters to the Editor, MaltaToday, Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 E-mail: dailynews@mediatoday.com.mt Letters must be concise, no pen names accepted, include full name and address maltatoday | SUNDAY • 21 JUNE 2020 Full closure. From Panama onwards Editorial THE latest revelations concerning 17 Black – the offshore company owned by Yorgen Fenech, ac- cused of masterminding the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia in 2017 – confirm the urgent need for official closure on various investigations con- cerning private investments carried out in total se- crecy by the Labour government. In no uncertain order, these include the Enemalta power station deal, the Vitals hospital concession, and the 17 Black connection between the Panama companies opened by OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri and former energy minister Konrad Miz- zi. This week, a joint Times-Reuters investigation revealed that in December 2015, 17 Black made a previously undisclosed profit of €4.6 million when Enemalta bought a wind farm in Montenegro. The purchase came after negotiations and several trips to Montenegro led by Konrad Mizzi, who in 2016 and again in 2018, would be revealed as the owner of offshore holdings which had identified 17 Black as a 'target client'. No evidence was uncovered regarding any direct payments from 17 Black to the companies owned by Mizzi or Schembri: but that could also be due to the fact that efforts to open bank accounts were abruptly halted, when Daphne Caruana Galizia be- gan publicly blogging about the affair. Regardless of how this new information sits with the murder investigation, however, it attests to the murky relationship that the former Labour admin- istration had with Yorgen Fenech; as well as to an underlying intertwinement between public and private business. Ultimately, the issue boils down to misuse of pub- lic funds. While Joseph Muscat heralded the Mon- tenegro deal as an investment "to foster relations with the government of Montenegro at Presidential and Prime Ministerial level", the reality that now emerges is that Malta's state energy company was clearly subverted into a vehicle for the enrichment of private interests… which amounts to a crime in itself, over and above any connection with Caruana Galizia's murder. Similar accusations have also been levelled over the Vitals hospital deal – which resulted in the sale of three State hospitals, at bargain prices, to private companies which failed to deliver on their contrac- tual obligations – and also to the partial privatisa- tion of Enemalta itself. But the 17 Black revelations also underscore an- other systemic problem within Malta's institution- al set-up. Once again, it fell to the media to inves- tigate matters which are clearly within the remit of other institutions: such as the police, or public inquiries. In some of the above cases, magisterial inquiries are indeed under way: but this raises separate ques- tions about why some inquiries – for instance, the one into the alleged murder of migrants at sea by the AFM – are concluded within weeks; while oth- ers are still ongoing more than two years later. It is also debatable whether such magisterial in- quiries are even capable of fully probing the issues at hand. Often, they are hampered by restrictive terms of reference: one example being the Egrant inquiry, which was limited only to determining whether the company was owned (as alleged) by Michelle Muscat… as opposed to an inquiry to de- termine who the real owner was. In view of the latest revelations, a separate inquiry into the Egrant affair is now clearly warranted. On another level, however, there is a political dimen- sion to these scandals, which cannot really be ad- dressed by the instruments of justice alone. Apart from facing official investigations, it is clear that the people at the heart of these stories also have to respond to their actions in public inquiries designed to fulfil our democracy's important role in holding public officials to account for their actions in government. As this newspaper has already stated, the murder- ous collusion of power, profit and police has result- ed not just in the assassination of a journalist; but also in the potential derailment of the investigation itself. The 17 Black story - and its connection to the Panama companies, and now also to an Enemalta investment – shows to which degree the decisions by Muscat, Schembri and Mizzi were tied to per- sonal profit, the common denominator (in these cases) being Yorgen Fenech. Cleary, in the most silent of ways, other people must have profited along with Fenech. The ques- tion is, who? This is why, under the new tenure of Angelo Gafà, the Maltese police force and the Maltese home af- fairs ministry have to be transparent, and commu- nicate to the public what investigations taking place into this wholesale theft of the country's money. There is more at stake here than closure in the Daphne Caruana murder case; there is also closure on an ugly chapter of our recent past. 20 June 2010 Showing teeth on quarry abuses THE government intends to implement stringent regulations on quarries, according to the new draft law proposed by the Ministry for Resources and Rural Affairs. All quarries in Malta, even those which are currently inactive, will require an authorisa- tion from the Malta Resources Agency (MRA). Failure to apply for this permit within 80 days will be interpreted as an intention to abandon quarry operations. The MRA will have to decide whether to grant the permit in six months. The proposed law also sets the criteria on the basis of which the MRA will accept or reject the application. These include "the private and professional integrity of the applicant," the ap- plicants' track record on health and safety and the protection of the environment. When issuing an authorisation, the MRA will also have the right to impose conditions which, if broken, can result in the suspension or withdrawal of the permit. If the quarry owner fails to remedy an in- fringement after a second letter of non-com- pliance, the Authority will have the power to revoke the authorisation. The new regulations empower the MRA in- spectors to enter and inspect any quarry to en- sure that conditions are being abided to. Significantly, authorisation for new mineral extraction activity or for the extension of ex- isting quarries will only be granted to those presenting written confirmation from the Malta Environment and planning Authority that they proposed operations has a valid de- velopment permit. Anyone operating a quarry without the MRA's authorisation as well as anyone found in breach of conditions shall be liable to im- prisonment for not more than 18 months and for a fine of €1,300 for each day during which the offence persists (capped at a maximum of €69,000), as well as the confiscation of any equipment used to commit the offence. The proposed MRA regulations come in the wake of a new environmental permitting pro- gramme for all quarries in Malta and Gozo announced by MEPA on Friday which aims to mitigate the inconvenience these operations have on neighbourhoods and increase the standards of environment compliance within the industry. Quote of the Week "By boycotting the grilling, they are not even giving themselves a chance to ask questions. And that is basically abdicating their responsibility." Former MP Franco Debono on the Nationalist Party's boycott of the grilling of the new Commissioner of Police MaltaToday 10 years ago