Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/262615
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 19 FEBRUARY 2014 3 News 'Amnesty' for energy thieves is Labour's biggest scandal ever – Fenech Adami MIRIAM DALLI NATIONALIST MPs Beppe Fenech Adami and George Pullicino have blasted the intention by the Labour government not to have some hun- dreds of consumers and businesses charged with the corruption of public officials, after three Enemalta officials were charged in court on the organisa- tion of a racket that involved tamper- ing smart meters. The government said it does not in- tend to conduct a "witch hunt" and in- stead allow consumers and businesses to regularise their position and pay interest and penalties, rather than face criminal charges for corrupting the Enemalta employees who organised the Smart Meter racket. "We believe this is scandalous, im- moral and irresponsible. It's the big- gest scandal to have hit Labour in the first 10 months of its government," Fenech Adami said. "It's a scandal because a criminal who bribed someone to steal from Enemalta and the taxpayer will not be facing criminal steps. The Criminal Code makes bribery a criminal act. And the penalty for that is a prison sentence." Fenech Adami also attacked Muscat for presenting legal amendments to harshen penalties for bribery, but that now he was taking steps to pardon people who bribed Enemalta officials. "Joseph Muscat is defending crimi- nals, which is a far cry from his elec- toral promise to fight corruption. In- stead, he is aiding and abetting those guilty of corruption. "He is placing himself above a law that should be equal for all. No prime minister has the authority decide that some 1,000 people who corrupted a public official should be above the law. "This seriously undermines the po- lice in a democratic state: the police are obliged to take criminal steps against 1,000 – and Muscat knows who they are. Government is undermining the good work of the police, putting aside the obligation to arraign them." Insisting the PN was not after the individuals, Fenech Adami said the citizens had a right to know who "the criminals" who bribed the public of- ficials were. Pullicino, the Opposition's spokes- man on energy, also revealed the names of five Enemalta employees suspended in connection with the investigation: Louis Attard, Edward Camilleri, Anthony Pace, Alan Cachia and Anthony Mifsud. Suspended Enemalta employee claims defamation Enemalta head of accounts Louis Attard files judicial protest calling on PN newspaper In-Nazzjon to desist from defamatory reports CHRIS MANGION AN Enemalta official suspended from work over a police investigation into his alleged bribery has filed a judicial protest demanding that the PN news- paper In-Nazzjon desist from pub- lishing defamatory reports on him. Louis Attard, 52 of Mosta, who works as Head of Accounts at Ene- malta, was investigated by the corpo- ration's theft control unit on suspicion of having formed part of a racket that tampered with over 1,000 smart me- ters for consumers and businesses. Attard said in his judicial protest that he started working for the cor- poration in 2004 as an accounts of- ficer and that since his suspension from the corporation, he has denied any connection to the electricity theft ring. The judicial protest made reference to a report published on 14 Febru- ary, in which Attard was described as the brains behind the smart meter conspiracy. Furthermore the article was given a political flavour when it mentioned that he had allegedly cam- paigned for energy minister Konrad Mizzi. "The report is full of lies as the only promotion I ever received was in 2010 under the PN adminis- tration when I was appointed Head of Accounts," he said. Attard claimed that article was de- famatory and aimed at tainting his reputation. He demanded that the PN newspaper stops such allegations and held editor Alex Attard responsible for any damages he could suffer. The judicial protest was signed by lawyer Edward Gatt. Bribery and whistleblowing: what the law says Government ministers have given the impression that customers who paid the Enemalta employees in the meter racket a sum of money to have their smart meters rigged, are "whistleblowers" if they come forward to pay what they owed and offer up information on what went down on 'meter-gate'. However, the Whistleblower Act (Chapter 527) defines a whistleblower as "any employee who makes a disclosure to a whistleblowing reporting officer or a whistleblowing reports unit, as the case may be, whether it qualifies as a protected disclosure or not under this Act." More importantly, the protection accorded to whistleblowers is not accorded to (Article 5) somebody who is the "perpetrator or an accomplice in an improper practice which constitutes a crime or contravention"; unless a court decides to mitigate the sentence of such an accomplice for his whistleblowing, because of their cooperation. Then come bribery laws: the government is saying that the Attorney General believes the Enemalta customers who paid the meter-riggers might not be liable under bribery laws. But Article 115 (2) of the Criminal Code, clearly states that a public official who requests, receives or accepts a reward to be induced to forbear from doing what he is in duty bound to do, is guilty of bribery. That means that an Enemalta employee who took money to rig the meters, can be found guilty of bribery. On to Article 120 of the Criminal Code, if a public servant has been bribed then the person who bribes the public servant "shall be deemed to be an accomplice". Furthermore, even if the public servant or the other person does not commit the crime, the person who attempts to induce any party to commit the crime is liable to imprisonment for up to three years. Family expert says homosexuality still carries stigma Adami argued against the inclusion of same-sex adoption in the Civil Union's Act, reiterating that "other countries have first brought up the issue amidst controversy, discussed it and then the laws were introduced after the proper studies were carried out. Here the situation is different: Everything is being rushed". Meanwhile, Opposition MP Clau- dette Buttigieg asked: "Is it true that other countries have first enacted laws enabling same-sex marriage, and only later allowed homosexual couples to adopt, and not add to- gether these two drastic changes at the same time?" Another speaker, Silvan Agius, a Ministry for Social Dialogue advisor, held that "What is being proposed is a hybrid of both Danish legislation and other sources." He explained that when the Unit- ed Kingdom introduced same-sex marriage, they not only focused on marriage, but also on other possible rights. "Contrary to the British mod- el, we are talking on 'equality on all counts.' This law is trying its utmost so that any difference between ho- mosexual and heterosexual couples is eradicated." Gabi Calleja, the head of the LGBT Community in Malta concluded the public meeting by saying, "I believe that the Civil Union's Act does not regulate the couple, but also of the offspring. This law is a law which be- longs to the family, and it's obvious that such a law is child-oriented." Former Air Malta employee took up MCAST job despite claiming early retirement money JURGEN BALZAN A former Air Malta employee who claimed early retirement money from the airline was illicitly em- ployed by MCAST, Education Min- ister Evarist Bartolo said. In May 2013, MaltaToday had reported that a number of former Air Malta employees who claimed their early and voluntary retirement schemes raised a red flag over the employment of co-workers inside government ministries. Under the national career's redun- dancy scheme, launched in 2011 in the wake of a massive downscal- ing of workforce prompted by Air Malta's restructuring, employees claimed as much as €60,000 on con- dition that they are not recruited in a public administration over the next three years. In reply to a parliamentary ques- tion by opposition MP Charlo Bon- nici, the minister explained that three former Air Malta employees were currently employed by entities falling under the responsibility of his ministry. He said that while two of the three persons, who are employed at the Foundation for Educational Services and Malta Libraries, had opted for government jobs, the third person joined MCAST despite benefiting from the early retirement payment. Bartolo noted that MCAST was in the process of recovering the funds owed to government. MaltaToday is informed that a number of former Air Malta work- ers who claimed the redundancy scheme are today employed as consultants with several minis- tries, with the ministries for social policy, and transport have employed former Air Malta workers on a self- employed basis with a contract for services. The arrangement has allowed these workers to bypass the condi- tions of the Air Malta redundancy scheme dated January 2012, which would have required them to refund their redundancy money back to the government's consolidated fund had they taken up employment in public administration or the civil service. Amidst complaints by Nationalist MPs Beppe Fenech Adami and George Pullicino (far right) that government was committing a "scandalous" mistake in waiving criminal proceedings for those who come forward with information on smart meter bribery, Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi (first left) said that government had uncovered a "web of organised crime" that could be "larger", and that the discovery had "angered" Prime Minister Joseph Muscat (second from right). Mizzi also accused former finance minister Tonio Fenech (centre) of refusing to answer as to how he handled energy theft under his watch. The Opposition yesterday kept up its attack on the Labour government, for refusing to prosecute what could amount to close to 1,000 domestic and business consumers who bribed Enemalta personnel.