Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/478858
14 In a Nationalist Party still strug- gling to reinvent itself after two years in Opposition, new faces are under- standably in high demand. Claudio Grech might not be the newest kid on the block: he was af- ter all closely associated with former Energy Minister Austin Gatt under the former administration, even if he never had an executive role. Still, the shadow economy minis- ter has a significant advantage over many of his colleagues. He cannot be directly associated with any policy or decision attributable to the last Nationalist government; and that makes him something of a trump card in the Opposition's hand at the moment. But he is a card that PN leader Si- mon Busuttil has so far found diffi- cult to play. Until recently he was the Opposition's main spokesman for health: a role he took to with visible enthusiasm. Following a shadow re- shuffle last January, he was assigned the economy portfolio instead. It might be an impression of mine, but he has been significantly less vocal since. I meet Claudio Grech at the ground-floor cafeteria of the Skyparks block near the Luqa air- port, and it seems natural to ask him if he was personally disappointed by the reassignment. He did, after all, seem to be enjoying his stint as health shadow minister… "Health, for me, was something totally new. When Simon Busuttil had spoken to me about it, my re- sponse was: health? Why me? I had absolutely no background, no con- nections. But when I started out, I got very much into the subject. And when you do that, you go into the fundamentals of how a sector works. I started speaking to a lot of differ- ent people in the sector, and a lot of patients…" In so doing, the sheer scope of the challenges facing the sector became evident. "The three most notable issues are: the fact that we have an elderly population; that the sustainability of our healthcare system – the way it is funded – is going to be challenged time and again, due to a constant decrease in the number of people paying taxes; and thirdly, very im- portantly, the continuity of care… the notion that when a patient goes to a public hospital or health centre, he will not see a completely different doctor each time. My position was: how can we try, from the Opposi- tion, to make a difference to a sector that has been largely the same over the last few decades? But to answer your question directly: I was happy in health. I sort of evolved to love the sector; to grasp it, to understand it… but then again, the opportunities in the economy portfolio are invariably large. Even from the Opposition, I believe there is a lot we can contrib- ute to the economic growth of our country." Sticking to health for the time be- ing. For years now, there have been whispers about the unsustainabil- ity of Malta's healthcare model. Just yesterday, Prime Minister Muscat declared that the service will remain 'free for all'… which may set off alarm bells, in that he wouldn't feel the need to say so unless there was serious doubt. From his own experience as health shadow minister, does Grech envis- age Malta's healthcare model re- maining the same indefinitely? "First of all, there is a big miscon- ception here. Healthcare is not 'free'. We all pay for healthcare. We pay taxes, and social security contribu- tions, part of which go towards na- tional health insurance. It is also technically incorrect – and I learnt this in my time as shadow minister – to state that all healthcare services in Malta are free. In fact this is not the case. You realise this when you meet a lot of patients who unfortunately are undergoing oncology treatment. There are a lot of cancer drugs which are exorbitantly expensive, and not covered by the government formu- lae. I can recall at least 15, 16 cases of families who spoke to me about this situation. Asking someone to pay €1,500 a month for chemotherapy is practically unreachable for most of the population. Let's be honest." Some drugs, he adds, are even more expensive. "The dilemma that I used to struggle with was: how can our so-called generous healthcare system overlook these people, who are the most in need? I think this is where the debate has to go. This is why I proposed that we should start looking at consensual, convergent politics on healthcare." Yet the approach towards health to date has hardly been convergent. One frequent criticism of both parties is that healthcare is often reduced to level of political football. Meanwhile, Grech has moved from health to the economy: which means that he will still have to face the same basic chal- lenge anyway. The ageing population issue affects government revenue as a whole, not just health. And the health service alone eats consider- ably into the national budget. Nor is this the only sector to take a toll on the budget. Energy genera- tion is likewise expensive: we rely on imported fuel, and the bill places an added strain on government finances in a country which relies on electric- ity for water production too. Grech has now joined the chorus of voices demanding explanations over Konrad Mizzi's apparent involve- ment in the latest power-purchase agreement with SOCAR. Clearly, there is no convergence in the energy sector, either. What does Grech himself consider the main problems with govern- ment's energy policy, and – if I might add – is the Nationalist opposition really the most suitably placed to comment on questionable practices in the procurement of fuel by En- emalta? "The first thing we all need to ac- cept on energy is that there is ab- solutely no magic wand which will generate cheap electricity. So anyone trying to depict that there is an easy solution – like we were promised before the election: as if there was a magic power station which would solve all problems – I think that is positioning the argument on the wrong footing..." He also deflects doubts on the PN's past handling of the same sector. "In my opinion this government, though it doesn't admit it, has built significantly on what the PN govern- ment had achieved. Why? Firstly, its power generation capacity for this legislature has been built on the back of two infrastructures: the intercon- nector, and Delimara 2... the so- called 'BWSC' power station. These two components are what make up the main power generation capacity of the present government… But they had no real choice, did they? Marsa was in the process of be- ing decommissioned… "But the choices were there. And the BWSC plant was such an attrac- tive asset that it was sold lock, stock and barrel to SEP. So today, BWSC is owned by SEP, and Enemalta will now buy electricity generated by De- limara 2 from this company. Now, in my view there is convergence on at least one aspect of this issue: the argument that the future is LNPG. Both parties are aligned to that. Only the method was different. Labour wanted this massive storage vessel in the port, and our argument was that, why not start investing in a pipeline, and in the interim have a vessel out- side the port? So when you boil down the arguments, and remove the po- litical statements, in substance we heading in the same direction…" Grech's main contention, he goes on, concerns the complete lack of transparency on the Labour govern- ment's part. "How can we have a debate on energy, how can we say we agree or disagree with something, when the power purchase agreement with SEP has not been published? Today, you and I do not know how much we're going to pay for the power purchased from the BWSC plant. We don't know that. What was tabled in par- liament was an MOU simply outlin- ing the major points, but there were no details on the financials. For all I know it could be a favourable rate. So why should we speculate, have all these debates, never-ending ar- guments, finger-pointing and all the rest, simply because the government feels that it shouldn't disclose the rate it is paying SEP for power?" Agreed, but the last government was not exactly the most transparent in the universe, either. One quick ex- ample: the BWSC contract. When it was negotiated, BWSC retained the right to veto publication. Govern- ment even had to ask its permission to release the contract, and some parts of it had been blacked out. Grech however argues that the parts protected by confidentiality clauses concerned intellectual prop- erty rights on the technology used at the plant. Confidentiality does not apply to power purchase agree- ments. "Now look at the Electrogas agree- ment. This is an 18-year supply agreement, and it is twofold: a power purchase contract, so basically we are committed to purchasing ener- gy from this power station that has yet to be built; and secondly, it is an LNG gas purchase agreement. We are contractually bound to buy en- ergy from this company for 18 years, and no one knows at what rate we're buying it. If government is so confi- dent that it has reached a good deal – a strong, cost-effective and scruti- ny-proof deal – can someone explain to me why it is so difficult to get the basic pricing that has been agreed to by the country?" From his time on the Public Ac- counts Committee, Grech argues that this trait is becoming habitual with the present government. He had raised similar objections to the Henley contract (to administer the IIP passport scheme). "How can the PAC scrutinise an accounting function, when the num- bers are not there? The PAC is not there to discuss policy. It's there to discuss financials. So we get a con- tract without the financials, and we're supposed to discuss it. What's left to discuss?" He pauses. "I think we need to move away from that. We should be rethinking the way we do politics." At the same time, however, this view is becoming a bit cliché. We have often heard similar sentiments before. Lawrence Gonzi had fa- mously talked of a 'new way of doing politics', and even before him, Eddie Fenech Adami had forecast a 'New Interview By Raphael Vassallo maltatoday, SUNDAY, 15 MARCH 2015 No 'magic wand' There's a danger that, yes, we might grow to become a formidable Opposition: but we'll remain in opposition for a very long time ELECTROGAS AGREEMENT If government is so confident that it has reached a good deal, can someone explain to me why it is so difficult to get the basic pricing that has been agreed to by the country? OPPOSITION