While it was good that the government was coming up with solutions to address the challenges in the energy sector, it did not mean that these solutions were always the best, PN deputy leader Mario de Marco said this morning.
Speaking during the debate to transform Enemalta into a plc, he said that in spite of what the government had been saying, the debate was taking place because the government signed an MOU with Shanghai Electric Corporation so it would take over a number of Enemalta shares, the amount of which had never been confirmed.
It would also be acquiring the new BWSC plant.
Dr de Marco asked whether the government had taken the new investment into consideration when looking at the corporation’s debts. He asked how it arrived to the corporation’s valuations.
He noted that the Opposition had to ask these questions because the agreement reached between the government and Shanghai Electric had not yet been published.
“This is not right and it is not acceptable… We cannot agree with a position we do not know anything about.”
The Opposition, Dr de Marco said, did not think that privatisation was essentially wrong. “Far from it. But what sense does it make for the government to privatise electricity generation and to give up control over such generation?”
What was the experience of countries which had taken such a step, he asked, adding that there were countries which privatised nearly everything but retained control over the generation of electricity.
Although the privatisation of Enemalta could be a good step that would help solve the corporation’s financial problem, the Opposition had no details whatsoever about what had been agreed upon.
Moreover, for the first time, Enemalta was not being bought by a private company but by a company belonging to another government.
He also asked who was Engineering Resources Ltd, which would be taking over the workers, who were its shareholders and would it remain a government company or would it also be privatised.
Dr de Marco said that the Opposition wanted the government to put on the Table of the House everything relating to the deal - both the positive and the negative.
He asked whether an attempt had been made by the government to seek alternative solutions and offers.
Nationalist MP Claudio Grech noted that the Opposition was not even being given a snapshot of the balance sheet Enemalta plc would be starting with. No basic explanation of what was being transferred was being given.
The process, he said, lacked transparency and the Opposition could not agree with it, if the legitimate questions being made were not answered.
The Opposition, he said, was not against investment but against the method being used by the government.