Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1503554
3 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 12 JULY 2023 NEWS Government MPs take Muscat's cue in requesting NAO cost-benefit analysis report on Electrogas project Cabinet rejects murder accused Yorgen Fenech's request to withdraw Melvin Theuma's pardon Yorgen Fenech KURT SANSONE CABINET has advised the President to reject Yorgen Fenech's request to with- draw Melvin Theuma's pardon follow- ing advice from the Attorney General and the Police Commissioner, govern- ment said on Tuesday afternoon. Theuma was granted a presidential pardon on 25 November 2019 to tell all about the Caruana Galizia mur- der. Theuma acted as a middleman be- tween Fenech, who allegedly com- missioned the assassination, and the three hitmen. When Theuma was arrested in November 2019, he also handed over to the police several re- cordings of conversations involving Fenech that he made in the months after the murder. Fenech was charged with master- minding the journalist's murder and is awaiting trial. The three hitmen – George De- giorgio, Alfred Degiorgio and Vince Muscat – have all been convicted and are serving jail time after admitting to the carrying out the murder. Caruana Galizia was killed in Oc- tober 2017 when a bomb placed un- der her car seat was detonated as she drove off from her Bidnija home. KARL AZZOPARDI GOVERNMENT MPs on the Public Accounts Committee want a National Audit Office re- port to carry out a cost–benefit analysis on the Electrogas project. The idea was first floated by former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat during his Tuesday af- ternoon testimony before the PAC. "I feel when the PAC investi- gation is over, the NAO should do another report to analyse the cost-benefit analysis of the project to see how much the people benefitted from it," Muscat told the PAC. Tourism Minister Clayton Bartolo took the cue from Mus- cat and asked the committee to take up his suggestion. Committee chair Darren Car- abott reminded Bartolo that all he needed was three commit- tee votes. The government has four. Tuesday's sitting continued in the spirit of earlier PAC testi- monies, with government and opposition members cross-de- bating throughout the whole session. The sitting was peppered with snipes and remarks from com- mittee members, with Muscat and government MPs telling Carabott he was going beyond the remit of the committee with his questions. "You want to be judge, jury and executioner," Clayton Bar- tolo told Carabott after he at one point said that he believes that his questions fall within the committee's remit. Carabott's first question to Muscat, where he asked the former PM to explain why he felt Konrad Mizzi was the most competent person to head the energy ministry. Muscat came out swinging, saying that while he would be answering Carabott's question, it was not in line with the com- mittee remit. The former PM was also asked a number of times on his decision to retain Mizzi and his former Chief of Staff Keith Schembri, following revela- tions on their offshore compa- nies from the Panama Papers. He said that following re- ports, he had sat them down and asked them why they need- ed the offshore accounts. "They gave me their reasons which are now in public fora. They told me that the €2 mil- lion would be coming from their private business, and I be- lieved them," Muscat said. Asked how he assumed that they would not be receiving money as kickbacks from the Electrogas project, he said the committee would be descend- ing into a political debate, and he had no issue with it. When asked whether the re- ports surrounding their off- shore accounts had raised any red flags (xegħlulek bozza ħamra), Muscat said red flags were raised when he saw the Enemalta accounts. "Alarm bells went off when I saw Enemalta drowning in debt," he said."The Opposition plan was for Enemalta to fail, BOV to go down with it, our financial system would fail and we would get a bailout." The former PM was also asked about his relationship with alleged Daphne Caruana Galizia murdermastemin Yor- gen Fenech. He said he met him around 2009 together with his father George Fenech. Asked when he got to know that 17 Black be- longed to Yorgen Fenech, Mus- cat replies that he got to know of this through the media. He describes the relationship be- tween them as one which de- veloped into a "friendship." Muscat says he had no form of conversation with Fenech about 17 Black. Former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat being questioned by members of the House Public Accounts Committee