Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi has asked the Police Commissioner to launch an investigation based on the conclusions reached by the Auditor General in a report about fuel procurement.

Mr Mizzi said the Auditor General’s report stated that the implications associated with the systems of poor record-keeping and documentation that characterise the operations of the FPC (Fuel Procurement Committee) prior to May 2011 “rendered it impossible for the NAO (National Audit Office) to effectively audit the decision-making process employed by the committee in adjudicated tender bids received and evaluated.”

The Auditor General had pointed out that the FPC awarded tenders to bidders who, based on severely limited information at the NAO’s disposal, did not submit the most favourable offer.

Mr Mizzi said since the police investigations into the oil scandal that erupted last January focused on activities undertaken prior to 2008, the lack of transparency emphasised by the Auditor General in the Enemalta Fuel Procurement up to May 2011 “raises questions as to whether alleged wrong-doings in the process were perpetuated beyond 2008”.

Scores of millions of taxpayers’ money seem to have been squandered

The Energy Minister said he referred the matter for the Police Commissioner’s further consideration to determine whether the Enemalta oil procurement process between 2008 and May 2011 “involved conduct which constituted the commission of criminal offences”.

Mr Mizzi’s announcement yesterday came soon after Alternattiva Demokratika chairman Arnold Cassola called on him to call in the police in view of the Auditor General’s report about oil procurement practices.

“Scores of millions of taxpayers’ money seem to have been squandered in the past years and, in the name of transparency and accountability, this merits an immediate investigation,” Prof. Cassola said.