Parliamentary Secretary Owen Bonnici said today that the Attorney General had expressed doubts as to whether the actions of those who made used of tampered meters amounted to bribery. However, the police remained free to institute criminal proceedings, if they wished.

He was speaking at a joint press conference with Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi.

The two expressed surprise at PN criticism of their handling of the tempered smart meters case, saying such criticism was in sharp contrast to how the PN governemnt acted in the past.

Dr Mizzi said that it was this government, soon after it took office, which set up a unit targeted specifically at electricity theft. This had happened amid reports of theft which the previous government had ignored.

He recalled that in 2006, Austin Gatt, the then minister responsible for energy, had said that theft was rampant and he mentioned Lm9 million (€21m approx) in electricity losses.

The Nationalist government had then given a blanket pardon for all those who  stole electricity in any way. The amnesty did not bind fraudsters to pay back what they stole and they were only required to pay a penalty of Lm100 (€230).  Some 2,000 consumers had come forward.

It was therefore incomprehensible that the PN was now criticising this administration for pardoning customers from criminal action as long as they paid for the electricity they had stolen, plus interest and a fine. They were also required to provide information on people involved in the scam.

It was also amazing how Tonio Fenech, the minister responsible for Enemalta until the last election, was conspicuous by his absence in the PN press conference. Under his watch,  electricity theft was high. The tampering of smart meters had been flagged by the Auditor General. But nothing was done, and theft cost Enemalta €30 million a year, Dr Mizzi said.

The theft unit set up under this government had quickly noted a pattern. Resultant inspections found tampered meters in 95 per cent of the cases.

Dr Bonnici said the governemnt was acting in line with the law and the Enemalta regulations when it called on consumers to own up and pay up if they wanted to avoid court action. 

This method, he said, was completely different from the blanket amnesty given by the PN government.

Consumers were now also being bound to give information along with paying for what they had stolen, plus the penalty. 

The information was important because the government did not  believe such an elaborate scheme was the brainchild of only those Enemalta workers who had been suspended.A legal notice issued in 2006, under the former governemnt, gave the chairman of Enemalta the authority to waive criminal action when a settlement was reached with those who stole electricity.  

Furthermore, the Attorney General had advised the government that it was not clear that those who used tampered meters had bribed anyone in terms of the law.

The law listed specific circumstances that established a transaction as constituting  bribery.

However the Police were acting independently from Enemalta and it is they who decided whether consumers could be charged of bribery.

Dr Mizzi said the government had not seen the list of names of consumers who had stolen electricity. It has been passed on to police. However he could say that those involved cut across all strata of society and included commercial and domestic users.

Dr Bonnici said that although the public had a right to know who the people were, the police had  to have the serenity to investigate things. The investigation was ongoing.