Mizzi blames poor planning for Enemalta's problems

Labour MP Joe Mizzi has insisted in Parliament that the main reason for Enemalta's ills is mismanagement and lack of long-term planning by the government.

Mr Mizzi was speaking at the opening of the debate on Enemalta's financial estimates last week. The debate continues this evening.

Mr Mizzi said crises caused by an oil price hike were not new, but the Labour government handled the crisis of the 1970s much better. Despite the problems at that time, the Labour government had still managed to steer the economy forward, create jobs, reduce debt and introduce a whole raft of new social and healthcare services.

The recent jump in oil prices had been well forecast and action could have been taken to ease its impact. After the 1973 crisis Opec lost some of its strength as more countries struck oil, but the organisation clawed its influence back by 1994. That should have been the first sign to the Nationalist government that it should be careful.

For one thing, it should have been much more active in oil exploration. But the only real initiative was taken by the 1996 Labour government which used funds from the Italian financial protocol for an exploratory oil well in Gozo.

Prior to the 1998 elections the PN used to claim that that project was futile and an electoral ploy, yet the new PN government then extended the project and went deeper. Indications were that oil and gas were present, but the people were never given a proper explanation and the well was plugged.

Then the Nationalist government also did not renew oil hedging agreements. Such a decision would have made sense had there been indications that oil prices would be consistently going down, but that was not the case.

Mr Mizzi observed that Russia had now become one of the world's most important oil producers. What had the government achieved for Malta during a recent high powered visit to Moscow?

The government, Mr Mizzi insisted, needed to explain in detail how it made its oil purchases. Was it the cheapest possible?

He insisted that given the current international scenario, consumer prices for electricity, gas and fuel should be lower. The current situation was eroding Maltese competitiveness, fuelling inflation and causing unemployment.

Mr Mizzi said domestic electricity prices had gone up under Labour to fund much needed investment on environmentally friendly power generation plants. Before the elections the Labour government had said the tariffs would be revised downwards because they had been badly worked out.

The present government shelved the plans for environment friendly facilities and Malta was now nowhere near the EU target of having 12 per cent of energy produced from renewable sources by 2010.

Some incentives had been given to encourage the people to opt for solar heaters and panels but they were little more than a joke.

Malta was also not meeting EU targets to reduce harmful emissions and reduce consumption for electricity. Just what excuses were being given to Brussels?

The last significant investment in new plant had been made 10 years ago. Enemalta's annual report had now calculated the required investment at Lm200 million. Where would the money come from? There was nothing in the annual report.

Neither was there any indication in the report of how emissions were to be reduced, and whether the EU would be in a position to help with funds in this regard.

The report admitted that the corporation needed to change the way it worked. Did recent top-level resignations signify a loss of all hope of moving forward?

Although a generation plan was finalised last year there was still no decision of what plant should be installed. The corporation now ran the risk of being punished by the EU for failing to comply with emission standards.

Mr Mizzi referred to recent faults at the power stations, which, he said, had significantly narrowed the margin of spare capacity. Would it be the makers of the equipment or Enemalta who would foot the bill? And would the corporation instal similar equipment?

He warned that unless spare capacity was cranked up before the summer, when demand rose, there would be havoc if another fault developed. And unless decisions were taken immediately on investment in new plant, there would be problems in the future, Mr Mizzi said.