The Auditor General’s report criticising a hedging agreement with an Azerbaijani company uncovered why Maltese and Gozitans spent months paying more for petrol and diesel, Opposition leader Simon Busuttil said this afternoon.
Addressing a news conference giving his initial reaction to the deal, Dr Busuttil said this afternoon the report made it clear that through the hedging agreement, Enemalta lost €14 million in oil purchases and the people were paying for this through higher petrol and diesel prices.
The auditor's report said that in 2014, Enemalta lost €8.6 million on hedges on crude oil and €5.5 million on unleaded petrol and diesel.
Dr Busuttil said the reservations expressed about the deal were giving rise to questions about whether there could have been corruption in the deal.
Dr Busuttil said that Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi’s involvement following that of the Prime Minister in the Cafe Premier scandal, in which the latter approved the handing over of €4 million to the cafe's owner.
And after the people paid millions in a stinky deal for Cafe Premier, they were now paying more millions in another stinky deal to buy petrol and diesel.
In both cases, the Auditor General contradicted the version of events given by Dr Muscat and Dr Mizzi and this showed that the both had lied blatantly.
Two years after being elected and failing to keep a number of electoral promises, including to build a new power station within two years, the Prime Minister’s dangerous style of management was now uncovered - it was one of political interference in matters which should be taken care of by the country’s other institutions.
In this case, the interference raised more serious doubts because of Dr Muscat and Dr Mizzi’s visit to Azerbaijan without being accompanied by public officials and the media, Dr Busuttil said.