Former Enemalta chairman Alex Tranter will not answer media questions over the Auditor General’s report on its fuel procurement committee last week.

Following questions by Times of Malta about the way he ran the committee and on why minutes of its meetings were not kept, Mr Tranter yesterday said: “Please appreciate that I wish to refrain from making further statements to the press on this NAO report, following my statement to the Auditor General.”

I wish to refrain from further statements

Last week, former infrastructure minister Austin Gatt also chose not to give replies to Times of Malta, stating that since retiring from politics he has decided to take comments and criticism in “stoic silence” and declared that he had no obligation “ethical, political or otherwise” to talk to the media.

Dr Gatt said he had no issue speaking about it in “proper institutions” such as Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee.

After the report was published, Mr Tranter said he had sent a statement to the Auditor on certain salient points and had given him the authority to publish it.

Mr Tranter later refused to give a copy to this newspaper.

The NAO’s report harshly criticised the way Enemalta procured millions of euros of fuel products during Mr Tranter’s chairmanship, raising serious questions about lack of record keeping, lack of proper testing for inferior quality fuel, inexplicable decisions and lack of proper records of who took the decisions.

Neither Dr Gatt nor Mr Tranter were interviewed during the report’s compilation, which the Auditor justified by stating it was not an investigation but an audit.

The report has been passed on to the police by Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi for criminal investigation.