The government would not say whether a probe into the quality of oil used at one of the power stations as recently as October 2013 had been concluded or not.

Headed by Judge Philip Sciberras, the inquiry was launched in the wake of “doubts” on the quality of oil used by State energy company Enemalta. The alarm bells were sounded by minister Konrad Mizzi, who, according to a government statement issued on October 22, 2013, was acting on “information” forwarded to him. Prime Minister Joseph Muscat tasked Judge Sciberras to look into the claims.

To date, no further official announcements have been made on the issue, except for last October, when Dr Mizzi said in Parliament, in reply to a question from Opposition MP Jason Azzopardi, the inquiry would be finalised in the following weeks. However, this newspaper has failed to establish what stage the inquiry is at. Questions sent to the Office of the Prime Minister last week, asking for a copy of the findings were unanswered at the time of writing.

The investigation was launched after an official told Parliament Enemalta occasionally accepted oil with excessive sulphur

The investigation was launched just a week after an Enemalta official told Parliament the company occasionally accepted oil consignments with an excessive sulphur level even though it was paying a premium for low-sulphur oil to minimise pollution.

The statement was made during a Public Accounts Committee hearing at which Philip Borg, manager of the then-Enemalta Petroleum Division, was summoned to testify on the conclusions of an inquiry by the Auditor General.

A series of shortcomings in the fuel procurement process had been flagged.

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