Opposition spokesman on the environment Leo Brincat on Monday called on the Auditor-General to investigate the lack of transparency in Enemalta Corporation’s oil purchases throughout this legislation, not least the possibility that its calculation of utility costs included fuel that had been paid for but never landed in Malta because it had been stolen.

Mr Brincat said it was very important for the government to convince not only the people but also credit-rating agencies like Standard & Poor’s, which had remained aghast at the lack of good governance in the corporation.

The European Commission had pronounced itself very worried at Malta’s great vulnerability to fluctuating oil prices because the country had no serious plans for alternative energy, so much so that only 4.8 per cent of the national budget was earmarked for it.

It was true that the government was working on alternative sources, but success would depend on the avoidance of more delays in starting them up.

With regard to the generation of electricity from power stations, Mr Brincat said the people were paying dearly for the government’s decade of procrastination on a gas pipeline from Europe.

With all the funds that were being spent on the extension to the Delimara power station, and the impending interconnector grid from Sicily, the corporation would still have very little production to rely on if one boiler at Delimara stopped functioning. There would be only some 70 megaWatt of generation standing by out of 150 or 200 megaWatts.

At the start of his speech, Mr Brincat said the main question regarding Enemalta was how to pay for oil purchases, the actual generation of energy, infrastructure and the investments therein. It was important to give people the information and answers they craved for.

The Auditor’s investigation he was calling for would allow the investigation of procurement systems, the translation of costs into prices, the adequacy or otherwise of planning, CIF arrangements and verification processes on landed products, and losses of product, quality and inefficiencies after landing. Such a report would give the opportunity for serious discussion in the House.

At the start of the year Enemalta’s debt had already been up to 16 per cent more than budgeted, and the estimates showed this was expected to rise to some 45 per cent.

The opposition could expect to be accused of scaremongering, but it was important to let the people know what they might find out after the next general election. Labour would also do away with procrastination. The National Plan on Energy had not even been finalised, let alone published. It was no solution transferring work on network maintenance needs to private contractors.

Mr Brincat said the choice of turbines for the new Delimara extension had been a mistake from the very start because they were known to start causing trouble after just two years of operation. Natural gas would have been a better option than heavy fuel oil, but the government had ignored the former option.

Enemalta was saying that the combined-cycle gas turbines would give about 40 per cent efficiency in relation to fuel burn, when the normal was more like 48 per cent and some quarters had even managed 61 per cent. Something was badly wrong somewhere.

He asked if there was any relation between the current high utility prices and the fact that when banks and financial institutions had seen the corporation’s books they had offered to lend much less than the €400 million requested.

It would be good to know what plans the government had for the development of the site of the Marsa power station once the plant was decommissioned.

Mr Brincat also asked what plans the government had for Arms Ltd, and why customers were still receiving bills that were between 12 and 18 months late.