Government sees no conflict of interests on Enemalta board

Finance Minister Tonio Fenech yesterday said he could see no conflict of interests in two separate cases of Enemalta Corporation directors whose employers had been awarded as many tenders.

Answering a parliamentary question by Joe Mizzi (PL) and a number of supplementary questions by Opposition Leader Joseph Muscat, Mr Fenech said one of the persons involved was the board secretary and would not have known about the tender because it had never been discussed at board level. The €9,000 tender for galvanising works to the only firm that could carry them out, BIM, had been handled by the corporation’s procurement section.

In the second case, which involved €7.9 million for insurance coverage, Mr Fenech said Mediterranean Insurance Brokers was only a broker and would not have been the ultimate beneficiary because its job was simply to identify the best deal. The person involved had already been on MIB’s books when he had been appointed a director on the Enemalta board.

Both directors involved were outsiders and would have declared their interests if the matters had come up before the board, leaving the room while the matter was discussed.

Quoting from the Code of Ethics, Dr Muscat said neither should have been appointed if there existed any actual or potential conflict of interests. Could it be that the minister was misleading the House?

Mr Fenech said the MIB employee had done the right thing by declaring his position at the time of appointment, but the minister appointing him had not thought this was important. The Code of Ethics did not preclude anybody from being appointed a director so long as they declared their interests at the opportune time.

Asked if he had known about the situation before Mr Mizzi’s question, Mr Fenech said he could not have known because he had been responsible for Enemalta only a short time.