In April 2004, Konrad Mizzi, chief information officer at Enemalta Corporation, presented to the board of directors of the same corporation a report themed ‘Information systems planning assessment stage’.

From chief information officer at Enemalta in 2004, Mizzi has gone a long way. He was appointed Minister of Energy and Conservation of Water in March 2013 and then Minister of Energy and Health this year.

Wikipedia states that Mizzi “led major projects and initiatives in the energy sector, both in Malta and the United Kingdom. He has also led other projects in various other sectors which include the government, infrastructure, telecommunications and promotion of enterprise”.

All that occurred when Malta was administered by a Nationalist government where, according to Labour, meritocracy was non-existent and when “Malta ma kenitx tagħna lkoll” (Malta was not for all).

Mizzi was the man from nowhere who, before the last election, came out with an ‘energy revolution’ that involves the construction of a gas-fired power station that would make possible the reduction in electricity tariffs for all. The government delivered on its promise to cut electricity rates – even though a lot of people have the perception their electricity bills have gone up and not down – but the gas-fired power station is still on the planning board and now it is official that it will not be ready by March 2015.

The easiest way out for Joseph Muscat is to make Konrad Mizzi resign

So we did not need a new power station to have the tariffs lowered.

As soon as Labour won the election and formed a government, Mizzi’s wife, Sai Mizzi Liang, was appointed by Malta Enterprise as promotion envoy in Asia without a public call and with a financial packet of €13,000 a month. That is equivalent to a year’s wages in scale 16 of the public service, which, on a scale of 1 to 20, is not even the lower scale!

According to Labour, she earned every cent of her packet because she delivered, especially on the agreements reached with China, foremost among them Shanghai Power’s 33 per cent stake in Enemalta – which is now a company and no longer a corporation – for €320 million. This agreement includes a 70 per cent stake in the BWSC electricity plant in Delimara in which Enemalta invested €150 million.

BWSC was commissioned in December 2012 and, through its production, Enemalta is saving €1 million a week in fuel costs.

This saving alone is more than enough for the government to reduce the electricity tariffs for domestic consumers by 25 per cent. With all these savings, the reduction in electricity tariffs could have been even higher.

Not to mention the price of oil which is presently hovering around $80 a barrel, the cheapest since 2010, with experts predicting that oil prices will even drop to $70 a barrel. Given these oil prices, Mizzi should give us all another reduction in electricity tariffs and a hefty reduction in the price of petrol and diesel.

But now for the other part of Labour’s electoral deal which Mizzi, together with his leader, Joseph Muscat, promised to deliver by March 2015: a gas-fired power station complete with jetties, tanks for the storage of gas and the necessary infrastructure. Muscat went on record guaranteeing he will resign if the project was not ready on time, that is March 2015. I am sure Muscat had assurances from Mizzi about the timeframes. After all, it was Mizzi who “led major projects and initiatives in the energy sector” and not him.

Now we have it from the horse’s mouth that the new gas-fired power plant will not be ready on time. I am sure it will be ready a year away from the agreed date with the electors.

A most optimistic projection is that such a power station takes between 20 and 24 months to be built and than there is the commissioning stage. The BWSC power plant took nine whole months of testing to be commissioned. So we are talking of a minimum period of three years from the word go to the handing over of the power plant.

No doubt, the people of Marsaxlokk and Birżebbuġa are very happy with such a delay.

At least for another three years they will neither have to endure the ugliness of the gas tanker lying in Marsaxlokk harbour in front of them nor the fear that something might go wrong with the tanker’s gas supply.

Who is going to take the blame for this fiasco? Muscat, who promised he will resign if the project is not on line by March 2015? Or Mizzi, who was and still is the man behind this project?

I have no doubt that Muscat will stay on. He will not resign the premiership. After all, he is not the expert in the energy sector. Mizzi is.

The easiest way out for Muscat is to make Mizzi resign and then give him some other ministry.

For Muscat, reshuffles are no problem. Another reshuffle will not make all that difference.

But it will not save face.