Enemalta’s board of directors has decided to hold at least one meeting a year in China, which owns one third of the energy company, the Times of Malta has learnt.

It has emerged that the first such board and shareholders’ meeting in China was held last August at which, apart from the directors and the company secretary, Energy and Health Minster Konrad Mizzi was also present.

The trip is thought to have cost the company several thousand euros but questions sent to Enemalta about this remained unanswered.

A spokesman for the energy company confirmed that the board had actually met in China. He noted that, although normally such meetings were held in Malta, it had been decided that at least one meeting should be held in China once a year.

He added that Dr Mizzi attended this “special” meeting to represent the shareholder.

This newspaper sought information on how many Enemalta representatives travelled to China for the meeting and what were the expenses involved. But no details were supplied by the time of writing.

No information was furnished either on the dates in which the directors travelled and whether any of them had extended their stay in China on a private basis.

The government’s representatives on the Enemalta board include Fredrick Azzopardi, who is also CEO, Kevin Chircop, Steve Agius and former Labour MP Salvu Sant. The company secretary is the GWU’s legal consultant Aron Mifsud Bonnici.

The board also includes two Shanghai Electric nominees.

In 2014, the Maltese government sold a 33 per cent stake in Enemalta to Shanghai Electric, which is owned by the Chinese government. The government also sold its newest power plant in Delimara, better known as the BWCS plant, to the Chinese and entered into an agreement to buy back all the electricity generated by the plant. The power purchase agreement was never published.

The ‘new’ Enemalta is going through a restructuring programme that includes shedding about 600 employees. The ‘surplus’ workers were deployed to a newly-set up government entity, Engineering Resources Ltd.

The Times of Malta reported last week that about 44 of these employees were given maintenance and gardening jobs at the Office of the President to take care of San Anton and the Verdala palaces.

The government has not said where the other employees were deployed.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.