The financial advisers that handled Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri’s secret companies in Panama have so far been awarded €735,000 in contracts by the Office of the Prime Minister, official data shows.
The Times of Malta tried to find out how many public contracts were given to Nexia BT and associated companies, but no information was forthcoming from the government. It decided, therefore, to make a formal request in terms of the Freedom of Information Act, and it resulted that between March 2013 and last May, the Office of the Prime Minister had awarded Nexia BT Advisory Services Ltd 12 contracts, with a value of €165,000.
Most of the contracts were awarded directly, without a call for tenders, and were described as “advisory services”. No details about the services were furnished.
Among the jobs given to Nexia were those connected with last year’s Commonwealth summit, where the company was engagedto coordinate the accreditation process for delegates and the media.
The Energy Ministry, which was headed by Dr Mizzi until April and now falls under Castille’s remit, gave Nexia BT Ltd and Nexia BT Advisory Services Ltd 24 contracts worth more than €570,000.
Nexia BT was awarded three separate contracts related to the energy sector in 2014 and 2015, but the nature of the services was not specified in the information given tothis newspaper.
Enemalta, which also used to fall under Dr Mizzi’s wing, gave Nexia BT work consisting of financial analysis and support for an unspecified permit application in 2013 and 2014. It is not known whether the permit was related to the new power plant in Delimara awarded by the State energy company to the Electrogas consortium.
Nexia BT are presently the auditors of GEM Holdings, the Maltese partner in the Electrogas consortium, which is owned by the Tumas and Gasan groups, together with Paul Apap Bologna.
According to the information provided to this newspaper, consultancy contracts were awarded to Nexia by a number of organisations that used to fall under Dr Mizzi’s remit, including ARMS Ltd, Energy Resources Limited, Malta Resources Ltd, Projects Malta and the Water Services Corporation.
Over the past three years, Nexia has been awarded contracts by various government ministries and entities. Among these were a €120,000 contract from Mater Dei Hospital in 2015, a €42,000 contract from the Economy Ministry on bunkering and a €17,000 contract from the Tourism Ministry for a study on public conveniences.
According to the Panama Papers, it was Nexia BT that, soon after Labour’s return to power, advised both Dr Mizzi and Mr Schembri, the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, on the opening of offshore financial vehicles in New Zealand and Panama.
The consultancy continued until the actual setting up of trusts for both politically exposed persons in New Zealand with a related trading company in Panama.
Both Dr Mizzi and Mr Schembri insisted that they had paid Nexia BT for their services, but requests from this newspaper to provide receipts have remained unanswered. Nexia BT is also the auditing firm of Mr Schembri’s private business, the Kasco Group.
The setting up of the offshore financial vehicles for Mr Schembri and Dr Mizzi is being investigated by the fiscal authorities, including the Inland Revenue Department and the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit, according to Finance Minister Edward Scicluna.
ivan.camilleri@timesofmalta.com