Minister Konrad Mizzi’s project in Marsaxlokk harbour is riddled with heresies and darkened by lies. This project has three components. It includes an LNG storage ship carrying liquified gas, a regasification unit to turn LNG into gas and a 200MW power station. So far, we have been told that the regasification unit will be built on land as the leased ship does not inlude such a unit. If it had, it could have been placed outside the bay. But now, because there isn’t such a unit onboard, the tanker has to be placed inside the bay so that it would not be far from land. Preliminary studies indicate that ths regasification unit will cost about €180 million.
Last Thursday, during a public meeting in the series Viċin Tiegħek, Mizzi said the ship will not remain long in Marsaxlokk bay because the government is working on a gas pipeline, a solution which had already been considered by the previous government. Good!
But now, when the ship leaves, what will happen to the regasification unit that is being built on land? The minitser said nothing about this and the mess continues to get messier.
How is it possible that the contractor, given a contract for 18 years, will invest in a plant to turn LNG from liquid to gas, only to have this unit rendered obsolete by the use of gas directly from a pipeline? What kind of confusion is this? How long will the minister keep trying to fool people? Why does he not come out with the whole truth?
The Opposition has long been insisting the government publishes all studies that persuaded it to embark on this project. The government is commiting us and our country to a project costing about €400 million without even telling us what will become of the regasification unit now that the minister is saying that he will soon build a pipeline.
Where are the studies on the different options and their feasibility? Even before buying a car, one looks around and sees what alternatives there are on the market to buy the best and most suitable one. But our government does nothing of the sort.
It is clear, therefore, that the government is being deceitful. It doesn’t even know what it wants: we started with tanks on land holding 60,000 cubic metres of gas. Then we doubled the storage capacity because we found out that the tanks could not be built on time and the smallest ship that was available had a 140,000 cubic metre capacity. Now, since people are crying out that this is madness, the government tries to take us for a ride by saying that a pipeline can be installed in a few years’ time.
Put your minds at rest because the minister confirmed that he is sleeping soundly all night. Of course he does, with his wife earning €13,000 a month.
And, on top of this, the government wants us to believe that they will lower electricity rates because of this project. The truth is that these can be lowered because the BWSC power station is saving Enemalta €1 million a week. From the time the power station started operating to the end of March of this year, Enemalta will have saved €64 million. But they are lowering lowering rates by €25 million a year. Enemalta is doing well with BWSC – March 8.
Handover
Last Wednesday, Parliamentary Secretary Michael Farrugia signed the documents by which the building of the civic centre in Swieqi was handed over to the local council.
The transfer was made exactly one year after the inauguration of the centre, which had been built in eight months and opened to public viewing in February 2013. A civic centre with offices, a meeting hall and a public garden, built in Triq il-Keffa on a plot of land that was partly government-owned.
There weren’t many other options where we could have built this centre because, actually, there is very little unbuilt government land in Swieqi. As central government, we had acquired the rest of the plot from its private owners, launched the project and the centre was built at a cost of €750,000.
I am informed by the mayor of Swieqi, Noel Muscat, that the council wrote several times to various ministers to be handed over the centre but to no avail. It appears that things got moving only when the council raised the matter with the Prime Minister during a meeting between the Cabinet and mayors.
The government is sending out a message that it considers even corruption to be negotiable
The mayor said that the Prime Minister wanted to know what was going on. At first, Josè Herrera, who is responsible for local councils, tried to give the impression that the transfer had already been carried out but, then, Farrugia, who is responsible for government land, said he would look into it.
What efficiency! The left hand doesn’t know what the right is doing.
Worse is the fact that, in an interview with Times of Malta, Farrugia tried to put the blame for the delay on the previous administration. Really shameless.
He said the delay happened because the civic centre had not been completed before the election. An outright lie. The civic centre had already been completed as those present at the official inauguration could vouch. I challenge him to say what works were carried out after March 8, 2013 on this building and what the supposed works he claims have been carried out cost.
It is shameful that this government gets away with murder. They take a whole year to transfer a wholly-completed building, thus stopping the local council from using these facilities. Foot-dragging out of political pique because they never believed that the project could be ready before the last election. Really childish politics.
The same happened in the case of the civic centre at San Ġwann. The Labour government decided to shelf the project of an enlarged public garden and new civic centre in the heart of this locality, right in front of the church.
To carry out this project in the heart of San Ġwann, we had planned to relocate the bowling pitch and, actually, before the election we had built new premises in an alternative location in San Ġwann itself.
Work on the civic centre was ready to start as soon as the bowling club was relocated to its new site because Mepa permits had already been issued. But it seems that the Labour government did not have the heart to continue the community project we had prepared – March 7.
Propriety
For this government, political propriety is a luxury. The way they administer the country clearly shows that they can do without it. The words of Joseph Muscat when he was leader of the Opposition vanished in the very first days he became Prime Minister.
Hardly had a few hours passed that he started to stretch the code of ethics of ministers and parliamentary secretaries. He felt he could allow a parliamentary secretary to continue with his profession and earn money from it as he engaged in private practice.
And when a person places absolutely no value in political propriety such person will see nothing wrong in behaving improperly. So much so that Muscat saw nothing wrong in giving a minister’s wife a job with a salary of €13,000 a month.
For the Prime Minister, anything goes where propriety is concerned. Every minister and parliamentary secretary is bound to make a declaration about their income as well as property and debts. Several Labour ministers were found out to have lied. False declarations. And Muscat allowed everything to go on.
Propriety for Muscat is like a piece of elastic. It can be stretched and shaped as one wants. Just like a blob of plasticine in the hands of children.
The discussion which took place on February 19 during the House Business Committe concerning the impeachment motion of Mr Justice Lino Farrugia Sacco shows how this government behaves.
Propriety would have demanded that the government take action so that the credibility of the judiciary is not undermined. Instead, they ended up acting as defence lawyers for the judge, in spite of the fact that the Commission for the Administration of Justice had found every reason for Parliament to proceed with his impeachment.
The amnesty given to those who bribed, in the case of electricity theft, also originates from a government that, even in the fight against corruption, makes political calculations. They are continuing to show how unscrupulous they are. This is a case where the government is interfering in the work of the police to favour those who bribed to obtain a tampered electricity meter.
Another scandal occurring in broad daylight! The government is sending out a message that it considers even corruption to be negotiable. And forgiveable.
The rule of propriety and values is a rigid one for responsible people. It is not flexible. It makes no exceptions for anybody. Does not make political calculations. It is not an amoral rule as it is for the government led by Muscat.
All honest citizens expect that the government behaves in a responsible manner. But the values of goodness, morality and honesty do not even exist in the government’s vocabulary – March 6.
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George Pullicino is a Nationalist MP.