Lack of documentation led the Auditor General to question the way fuel hedging agreements with Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR were signed last year on the basis of "ministerial direction," with the National Audit Office stating that this detracted from accountability.

But in comments made to The Malta Independent, Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi defended his involvement, pointing out that it was simply limited to suggesting SOCAR as a possible supplier at a time when fuel prices were set to go up.

The minister said that the agreements with SOCAR led to a €0.02/litre reduction in the price of petrol and to the price of diesel remaining stable, at a point when the price of both was set to increase by €0.02 a litre.

But the Nationalist Party was critical of the arrangement, and the fact that Enemalta ended up losing over €14 million on fuel hedging, although it recouped nearly €8 million through currency exchange hedging.

The party said that this was the second report in as many weeks - the one concerning the Café Premier "bailout" was the other - in which the Auditor General condemned the way the government used public funds.

It said that Dr Mizzi and Prime Minister Joseph Muscat had a lot to answer for, and that the public wanted to know why Dr Mizzi interfered personally.

PN leader Simon Busuttil took to Twitter to criticse Dr Mizzi for his involvement.

The report did highlight, however, that significant improvement was registered in the governance of Enemalta's Advisory and Finance Committee, which handles hedging within Enemalta.

This finding was welcomed by the government and by Dr Mizzi himself.

On the other hand, the NAO did note that the shortcomings it had highlighted in a 2013 report on fuel procurement largely persisted, including the lack of a formally documented hedging policy against which Enemalta may set its strategic orientation.