PN MP Jason Azzopardi will be 'offering all help and assistance' to all the parliamentary members of the Montenegrin Opposition who set up an Inquiry Committee to investigate the Mozura windfarm scandal and fight endemic corruption.
On Monday morning, Azzopardi shared an email he received from the Parliamentary Opposition in Montenegro on his personal Facebook page.
The email was written by Srdjan Milic, one of the Opposition MPs, who expressed that "all MPs form the opposition (39 of a total of 81 MPs) gave their support to create a Special Parliament Committee with the aim to investigate all aspects of the Mozura windfarm scandal and the remarks that we have here on endemic corruption especially in the field of energy."
Attached to the email is the Act that shows the legal set-up of this Inquiry Committee, explaining that the committee was proposed after the recent developments in the case of the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia and her investigation about the leasing, construction and operation of the windfarm in question.
The Committee is comprised of 12 Montenegrin MPs, namely; 6 MPs from the parliamentary majority (3 from the Democratic Party of Socialists, 1 from the Social Democrats, 2 from the MP Group of minority parties), and 6 MPs from the parliamentary minority (3 from the Democratic Front, 1 from the Social Democratic Party MP Group, 1 from the Special MP Group and 1 from the SNP-DEMOS MP Group).
The Act also shows that the Committee will be tasked with collecting information and all relevant documents, taking statements from state officials and providing full compliance with the legality principle on the basis of which the facts related to the subject of the parliamentary inquiry can be established.
Miliac asked Azzopardi for the help of the Parliament of Malta in this regard.
In his Facebook post, Azzopardi expressed that he shall be replying offering his full help and assistance, praising the importance the Montenegrin Parliament are giving to this scandal which contrasts with Malta's 'intertia.'
The Mozura wind farm project has faced a lot of scrutiny in Malta due to alleged underhand dealings which have recently been brought to light through an investigation by Reuters and Times of Malta which showed that 17 Black, the Dubai company owned by Yorgen Fenech, made a profit in December 2015 of €4.6 million from Enemalta's purchase of a windfarm in Montenegro .
This was a month after the government announced that it was acquiring the project through Enemalta.
"In that same month, accountants for Mizzi and the Prime Minister's then Chief of Staff, Keith Schembri, wrote in an email that Schembri and Mizzi stood to receive payments from 17 Black for services that weren't specified", the Reuters report says.
Mizzi had previously said he had no connection with 17 Black and insisted that he had brokered the deal as Energy Minister.
The former Energy Minister has since then been removed from the PL's parliamentary group after a decision was taken by the group itself and the PL Executive Committee due to this scandal; the last in a string of scandals which started off with the Panama Papers.