Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1506631
NEWS 9 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 30 AUGUST 2023 MATTHEW VELLA FORMER prime minister Joseph Muscat returned to the parliamentary public ac- counts committee in his fourth appearance as a witness on the NAO report dealing with the procurement of the Electrogas gas plant. Many of the questions he fielded dealt with previous matters he has testified on, with clarifications sought on other state- ments made by former finance minister Edward Scicluna and former permanent secretary Alfred Camilleri. In a new development, the Opposition MPs leading the grilling of the former La- bour PM asked Muscat to justify the alleged absence of the finance ministry on the pro- curement process of the Electrogas deal. With some questions based on conclu- sions emanating from the Caruana Galizia assassination public inquiry, Muscat at one point expressed his disagreement with the conclusions of the three-judge panel. While the inquiry's conclusions remarked at the "utter lack of involvement" of then finance minister Edward Scicluna from the negotiations on the Delimara gas plant with Electrogas, Muscat said this was "totally in- correct". "The public inquiry is not understanding the remit of the ministry and the extent of its involvement. Numerous Cabinet docu- ments will attest to its involvement, some- times with other lead ministries. Here the judges are saying it was never involved. Many Cabinet documents will disprove this claim. If the witness statements the inquiry heard gave them this impression, it is a wrong conclusion." Muscat insisted that Scicluna was in- volved "at all stages where the ministry of finance had to be involved in" and that his testimony to the public inquiry had been "strongly extrapolated." Muscat, reacting to PAC chairman Dar- ren Carabott's read-out of the judges' conclusions, reiterated his belief that their interpretation of Scicluna's testimony was "incorrect" and bereft of any experience grounded in the workings of government. As Nationalist MP Robert Cutajar took issue with Muscat's doubts about the con- clusions of the public inquiry, Muscat re- plied saying that his wholesale belief of the inquiry should be extended to the conclu- sions of the 'Egrant' magisterial inquiry, which had disproved his ownership of a se- cret Panama offshore company. Later, with more questions delving in- to the public inquiry's conclusions, it was Labour MP Glenn Bedingfield who raised the point that Auditor General Charles De- guara should substantiate whether the Elec- trogas procurement had been a pre-elector- al deal as claimed by the judges in the public inquiry. With Muscat asked to leave the PAC committee room, Deguara testified to the MPs that there was no way that such a com- plex procurement as the Delimara gas plant could "either be good or bad… it is a human process after all." "We did not find clear evidence to strengthen the argument that this was a pre-electoral deal. The NAO lives or dies by its evidence. Clear evidence of a pre-elec- toral agreement was not found… unfortu- nately in every assignment we have had in the last 15 years, nobody has ever sent us all the information we requested." Muscat, brought again into the commit- tee room, then commented that it was the NAO's published view that the irregulari- ties over parts of the procurement system had been down to the fact that there were no guidelines for a contract of this nature. "We had to create the guidelines as we pro- gressed on this contract." Muscat later challenged Carabott over questions dealing with private business matters that belonged to his former chief of staff, Keith Schembri. "This is not the PAC's remit right now… this country does not have clear rules on whoever is in private business and working in the public sector, to have clear reporting guidelines on this kind of business." Questions from Carabott related to an ar- ticle by blogger Manuel Delia claiming that Keith Schembri had received $430,000 in "unexplained funds" in January 2015, five weeks after a trip he made to Azerbaijan capital Baku. Joseph Muscat had back then said that his chief of staff had "categorically" denied the allegations. In other matters dealing with the Elec- trogas deal to have Enemalta pay some €2 million a year in excise duty for the private company, Muscat insisted that the trade-off was still advantageous to the taxpayer. "The excise is being absorbed as part of a final settlement on demurrage and other condi- tions, with the trade-off being in favour of Enemalta… a number of these advantages were costed, with a positive balance in fa- vour of Enemalta." Carabott asked at what point did the gov- ernment decide to change a condition with- in the contract to have Enemalta absorb the excise payable by Electrogas. "If it was something that benefited the taxpayer, we would have changed the contract… I don't see anything exceptional about this," Mus- cat said. Electrogas: Muscat tells PAC Daphne inquiry judges 'factually incorrect' Freeze your organic waste to avoid odours, Wasteserv CEO suggests MARIANNA CALLEJA PEOPLE complaining about bad odours from the organic waste bag at home can freeze it until the next collection day, Wasteserv CEO Richard Bilocca said. The unorthodox suggestion was made during TVM's Xtra on Monday when Bilocca was answering a question about complaints that organic waste creates bad odours, especially in summer. "Today, the organic bag is collected three times a week, and the black bag twice a week. Throwing the organic waste away with the black bag is not a solution. A small suggestion, to avoid the problem of bad odours, is to freeze the [organ- ic] bag when it is full to be taken out on the correct day. This does not create any problems for us [Wasteserv]," Bilocca said. The Wasteserv CEO said Malta is one of the countries that generates the most mixed waste, adding that 20% of black bag waste from residences was organic waste that could have easily been separated. Bilocca said the numbers were worse for the commercial sector with 30% of black bag waste be- ing organic waste. "The amount of waste going into our landfill accounts for more than 80%, and we're aim- ing to reduce this to only 10%," Bilocca explained, adding great- er emphasis is being made on waste separation. However, not everything was gloom and doom, he added. "Despite the increase in pop- ulation the black bag tonnage decreased by 10%," Bilocca said. During the programme four mayors also spoke about the waste problem afflicting their localities. Joseph Muscat, flanked by assistant Mark Farrugia, testifies before the PAC. Photo: James Bianchi/ Mediatoday Wasteserv CEO Richard Bilocca