The fact that the Government should not have guaranteed the ElectroGas loan is to be found in the company’s statement issued after the Opposition had lambasted the fact that Bank of Valletta is lending money to a company that does not have the necessary financial security to guarantee such a large loan. According to The Malta Independent (14th August 2015), ElectroGas insisted that the construction of the power plant is not a government project, but a project entrusted to ElectroGas Malta after being awarded the contract through a stringent competitive selection process.
First and foremost, I have my doubts regarding the stringent process in this case. ElectroGas can only speak about stringent and competitive selection process if there was a call by tender. But there was none.
But more important for me, since this is not a government project, I am right to conclude that this is a private project. As a private project, I expect the Government to treat this project in the same manner it would treat any other private initiative, in the sense that it should stay out of all dealings.
I do not agree that the government should be guaranteeing money for private initiatives. Nor do I find the statement of the Prime Minister amusing when he said that unlike the Nationalist Government, he is guaranteeing a sound investment, while the Nationalists guaranteed a bankrupt Enemalta. But unlike ElectroGas, the Enemalta that the PN Government guaranteed was government owned.
Private initiatives are what they are, private, and government is not meant to pledge public money in their support. This is a scandal. It is even a bigger scandal that BOV is lending the money to a company that does not offer the necessary security. Clearly, BOV is acting in this way because it is controlled by Government. Simply because Government (hence the nation overall) has the majority holding of 25% of BOV Bank, it does not mean that it can ride rough-shod over one and all.
If this project is really needed for the country, then the government should have undertaken it. The EU does not prohibit Governments from investing in the development of electricity. If ElectroGas ends up making profit, the directors and shareholders will enjoy the profits and not the general public. But if there is a loss, the public will be paying the price and not the ElectroGas businessmen.
I agree with the Opposition when stating that the ElectroGas bank guarantee supersedes national interest and was given only to save face for the Prime Minister and Minister Mizzi. But then, I cannot understand why Minister Konrad Mizzi is not the focus of strong criticism in the same way as Parliamentary Michael Falzon was criticized over the shady deals that took place under his watch.
I will add one other point. In the pre-electoral pledges, the Prime Minister was not cunning enough to realize that those proposing and selling this project to him did not have the money to do it. This explains why the government is now guaranteeing this project through BOV.
Yet, I cannot support the Opposition’s initiative of calling on the EU to interfere. As a nation, we should be able to stand on our own feet. We do not need to call out to big brother for help in such instances. We are no longer under colonial rule, when Maltese politicians appealed to the Privy Council each time they disagreed with the imposition of bad laws or ordinances by the colonial authorities present on the island.
Moreover, the Opposition should have learned from its experience with the Citizen Investment Scheme. The Opposition had rightly sought the help of the EU to stop the government from implementing the IIP project. The result was clear. The EU Commission and the PPI took their fellow PN party for a ride. In the EU, the logic is money and shady deals that reign supreme and not principles and ideals. The Malta Independent has reported that the commission is likely to give the green line to this type of guarantee. What the Opposition should be doing at this stage is to hold those taking decisions both within the Civil Service structure and BOV personally responsible. If it wants to be more adventurous, the Opposition should take the cue from Anglu Farrugia and push through parliament a law for the creation of a judicial authority or inquiry judge with ‘super’ powers to investigate and prosecute suspected individuals responsible for the misuse of public funds.
If this type of investment goes wrong, it will be government and the nation that will pay the price. ElectroGas owners will continue to enjoy their bella vita. In failing to name the individuals within Government and BOV for having sanctioned such deals, the PN is doing an injustice to the small investor who has shares in BOV and to John the citizen who goes to BOV for assistance.
In my opinion, this is a serious injustice. Both parties play at wanting to put the interest of the family first and foremost, but I am sure that many couples who go to the BOV to borrow money to buy a property are faced with endless questions and are psychologically harassed. Yet that same rigorous stick used with John the citizen for a few ‘peanuts’ is not adopted with the powerful investors who can obtain millions even if they do not have a penny to their name or as we say in Maltese “ma għandhomx sold taħt l-imħadda”.
This is morally not right. It is this sort of immorality that the PN should be fighting. By omitting to lay emphasis on this point, not only is it committing a grave political error but it will be interpreted in politics that those individuals behind these shady deals and corrupt practices both within BOV and the Government Civil Service have (like Gaffarena) powerful friends at Tal-Pieta’.
It is clear that the PN has no thought-out plan as Labour had, and still has, to select a point and drum it on the media until it brainwashes the electorate or if it has, it is failing miserably. What comes across is that the PN is a one-off voice in the desert speaking about a topic, which will be soon forgotten, as it will be superseded by a multitude of other news that appears in the daily papers. In my opinion, the reason for all this is due to the fact that the political arguments chosen by the PN are far-removed from the needs and expectations of the ordinary man in the street.