Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/262615
€0.90 WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT WEDNESDAY EDITION WEDNESDAY • 19 February 2014 • issue 352 • published every wednesday and sunday Editorial - PAGE 11 Newspaper post Private practice for parliamentary secretary Government tries to avoid headache of charging 1,000 on Enemalta bribery Opposition says Prime Minister is granting pardon for corruption of Enemalta officials • Energy minister Konrad Mizzi says PN ignored €240 million in theft of energy on meters CONTINUED ON PAGES 2-3 EDITORIAL - PAGE 11 Parliamentary secretary for the care of the elderly Franco Mercieca can be expected to soon return to his private practice: in comments to MaltaToday the Gozo MP would not deny or confirm plans to step down from his ministerial role, 10 months after Joseph Muscat granted him a waiver from the Code of Ethics to continue his private practice. In the meantime, staff from his secretariat have started searching for new occupations PAGE 5 MIRIAM DALLI PARLIAMENTARY Secretary for Jus- tice Owen Bonnici said yesterday that the Attorney General had expressed doubts as to whether the actions of those who paid or accepted to have their meters tampered to have them register less energy being consumed, amounted to bribery. But Bonnici also said that the police were free to institute criminal proceedings, if they wished, as criticism mounted from the Opposition that the government was trying to pardon some 1,000 meter owners who had paid Enemalta employees to rig their meters. Both parties yesterday traded the usual slew of accusations, as the Nationalists claimed that the Labour government was granting a blanket pardon to consumers and businesses; while the government ac- cused former PN administrations of grant- ing amnesties on an estimated theft of some €21 million (Lm9 million) in 2006. Energy minister Konrad Mizzi accused the former government granting a blan- ket pardon, without even binding the per- petrators of the energy theft to pay back the energy they had consumed illegally. Instead, under the terms of the 2006 am- nesty, some 2,000 consumers were made to pay a penalty of Lm100 (€233). Mizzi said it was the Labour government that instantly set up a theft control unit inside Enemalta, just months after taking power, to clamp down on a "spider web" of bribery. According to the Criminal Code (see pages 2-3), a person who offers money to induce a public servant to forbear his duty, is also liable to imprisonment. Opposition leader Simon Busuttil yes- terday also joined the fray, sending out a tweet accusing Prime Minister Joseph Muscat of being "above the law" by grant- ing an "amnesty" to whoever had bribed the Enemalta employees to be able to steal electricity. PHOTOGRAPHY BY RAY ATTARD