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NEWS 7 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 7 DECEMBER 2022 Electrogas: Edward Scicluna plays down 'kitchen cabinet' quip NICOLE MEILAK FORMER finance minister Ed- ward Scicluna played down his 2020 comments on a 'kitchen cabinet' of advisors to then prime minister Joseph Muscat. Speaking in front of parlia- ment's Public Accounts Com- mittee, which is reviewing the Auditor General's report on the contract awarded to Electrogas by Enemalta, Scicluna said that such 'kitchen cabinets' exist in every government. "In every constitution, you have a cabinet that meets regularly […] but then it's up to the prime min- ister or president to have a clos- er group that they consult with, bounce ideas with, and so on." Scicluna said that he main- tained close contact with Muscat, but he was not among the closer group of advisors that Muscat would consult with. In 2020, Scicluna had spoken of a "kitchen cabinet" of advisors to Muscat, who made decisions and gave the go-ahead on certain controversial projects. He made the remark while tes- tifying before the public inquiry into the circumstances that led to the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia. Scicluna insisted that he was not part of this inner core of peo- ple that influenced Muscat's gov- ernment. Tuesday's PAC session was attended by Labour MPs Andy Ellul, Glen Bedingfield, Alex Muscat and Clayton Bartolo and Nationalist MPs Jerome Caruana Cilia, Rebekah Borg and Darren Carabott, who is president of the Committee. Scicluna told the committee that the Labour Party had taken the decision to move towards a gas energy solution before the 2013 election. However, Scicluna was not in- volved in the party's energy plans. He had asked Muscat, who was leader of the party at the time, to present some workings on the project before the election. When in government, the gas energy project was spearheaded by Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi. Scicluna said he was not involved in the process as "his plate was full". Scicluna refused to answer on whether Konrad Mizzi, who was the energy minister at the time, "did a good job" on the power station project. He said Mizzi would report to cabinet with any updates on the project. This was the extent of Scicluna's involvement; he said that no one approached him for advice on the power station plant. Carabott asked Scicluna about the work of the Financial Intelli- gence Analysis Unit (FIAU), and whether he was kept up to date on the workings of the unit. Scicluna said that its former di- rector, Manfred Galdes, would keep him up to date on investiga- tions and the general work of the unit. However, Scicluna said he never received anything from the FIAU on Electrogas. Galdes resigned in August 2016, months after the Panama Papers broke out. At the height of the media frenzy of Keith Schembri's and Konrad Mizzi's involvement in the Panama Papers leaks, Sci- cluna had confirmed in parlia- ment that the FIAU was investi- gating the matter. Unconfirmed rumours started circulating that year to the effect that Galdes had handed his con- fidential report into the matter to then police commissioner Mi- chael Cassar in April. The PAC was adjourned to 14 December, with power station investors Mark Gasan and Ray Fenech expected to testify. The former finance minister says it is normal for government cabinets around the world to include a smaller group of advisors to the prime minister Edward Scicluna Alfred Sant THE Head of the Labour Delega- tion in the European Parliament Alfred Sant has said that until a functioning migrant relocation policy is in place, member states on the sidelines had little right to throw stones at border states left alone to handle the crises caused by irregular migration. Addressing the plenary ses- sion of the European Parlia- ment on asylum and search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean, former Prime Minister Alfred Sant recalled that little progress had been made on relocation and in the fight against people smuggling. "The main problem with the implementation of a viable pol- icy on asylum and migration is that the Union proclaims the values of human rights and solidarity, yet the crucial ele- ments that would make them operational and fair to Mem- ber States are not in place," Sant said. At the end of 2021, about less than 10% of all immigrant set- tlement in the European Union was irregular. Sant said this is used as an argument to take the edge off the seriousness of the crisis in irregular immigration to Europe. "Notwithstanding, the most recent European Union action plan proposed by the Europe- an Commission for the cen- tral Mediterranean does not effectively address the need to relocate migrants arriving at border states fairly across the European Union and the fight against people smuggling. "The plan being proposed says a lot about search and rescue operations, organised by largely unsupervised and unregulated NGOs, the latter however is increasingly being perceived by electorates in border countries as a pull fac- tor for irregular migration and as allies of people smugglers." Sant calls for functioning migrant relocation policy