The Energy Minister is hard to believe. Konrad Mizzi had no defence to his failure on delivering the power station on time, with the clock still ticking and, to make matters worse, he keeps defending the indefensible in the latest Socar deal. His actions, exposed by the Auditor General, reaffirm his and the government’s lack of credibility.

Governance and accountability in administration have little learning curves, especially for a party elected on the pledge of doing better, promising further to build on transparency. Claiming to be new to the job is also no excuse.

Mizzi gave a cool reply to the damning report of the Auditor General that exposed his direct political interference in the purchase of fuels. He brushed it off by a self-incriminating statement to the media saying that “Socar Trading was part of the winning bid by Electrogas for the building of the new power station… Therefore it was decided to ask them if they could help out.” This, in itself, proves the Auditor General right in his conclusions on lack of governance and accountability.

Five months ago, Mizzi went straight to the police accusing his counterpart of direct involvement in a tendering process on PV panels worth some €35 million, an accusation forcefully denied by George Pullicino, to the extent that no proceeding followed. It was clearly a dirty trick to push attention off his master’s back when the Parliament’s agenda and the country’s spotlights were focused on the government’s failure to deliver the power station on time.

Five months later, the Auditor General concluded that Mizzi exerted direct political ministerial interference in an undocumented deal of “magnitude” with Socar for the purchasing of fuel which was worth €67 million and that left the country in the red by €7 million.

Going by his own yardstick, the minister should go straight to the police to report himself about his proven direct ministerial involvement.

Since when has it become permissible for a Cabinet minister to intervene directly in the purchasing of fuels and then justifying his actions on the basis of “knowing” and “working” with the winning bidder in one of Malta’s biggest tenders in history?

The government fails to see the difference between the bidder awarded a contract following a competitive process and the contractor directly engaged to provide fuels to the government and who happens to be the same winning bidder.

Bypassing procedures and accountability, going straight to the contractor was no mistake. The actions committed by Mizzi are serious and hint to a deep-rooted relationship between the government and the bidders, rubbing shoulders with its contractors.

Has the minster for energy become a rogue trader himself?

Konrad Mizzi’s deal was good for Socar but no deal at all for the country

Contrary to the impression given by Mizzi that his involvement was limited to “suggesting” “another” provider of fuels to the Enemalta to broaden its hedging potential, it is very clear the ministerial intervention was premeditated and part of a bigger scheme of events that were and still are on the Prime Minister’s cooking burners. The timeline of events proves this.

In December 2013, Enemalta gave the green light to Electrogas Malta Limited to build the gas-fuelled power station in Delimara, two months after selecting it as the preferred bidder with Socar owning 20 per cent of the consortium.

That same month, and despite international condemnation of the fraudulent election, Joseph Muscat congratulated Ilham Aliyev on his birthday and his re-election as President of Azerbaijan for the third term, extending his pledge of confidence stating that he “will build on the efforts that will strengthen the ties between our two countries”.

Aliyev responded quickly by sending his ambassador on an official visit to Malta the following month. The Azerbaijan news agency said the ambassador and the Prime Minister discussed “rapidly developing economic ties between the two countries and projects to be implemented in Malta by Azerbaijan”. Incidentally, the ambassador returned to Malta the following month with the President’s daughter, a visit that was not at all coincidental.

The government kept his burners on and it was clear that it was still rubbing its shoulders with the winning bidder, Socar. On March 21 last year, from Brussels, the media in Malta and Azerbaijan reported Muscat as having “hailed the energy projects carried out by Azerbaijan’s State oil firm, Socar, in Malta.” On that same day, Enemalta’s advisory and finance committee set its hedging targets for the second half of 2014, concluding hedging deals with Socar by April 1, as revealed by the Auditor General. It was no April fool.

A memorandum of understanding was signed on December 15, 2014, the Azeri Ambassador having visited Malta before that date. His last visit took place 10 days before the Prime Minister flew out with his restricted entourage for his unannounced visit to Azerbaijan.

The MOU, published three months later as a line of defence to the scandal, may seem to set out general principles of cooperation, yet the country remains in pitch darkness about the nature of backroom discussions beyond those principles.

Like the hedging agreement, the meetings are undocumented, with no government official being present to record the talks. It was just the Prime Minister, his two closest aides around him in Castille and the minister who recommended the purchase of oil from the winning bidder.

Mizzi tries to sell us the idea that his recommendation to Enemalta was to have Socar “help us out”. The country, though, is not as thick as the oil purchased through ”ministerial direction” and the timeline uncovers the plot.

Seeking help that results in a 10 per cent loss on the purchase price paid is no help at all and a more serious explanation is needed.

It is clear that Mizzi’s deal was a right deal for Socar but it was definitely no deal at all for the country.

Paul Borg Olivier is a former PN general secretary.