MP Konrad Mizzi said today he was refusing to attend a Public Accounts Committee hearing which was to question him on the Electrogas deal.
In a statement on Facebook, the former Energy Minister said he has elected “not to participate in the meeting of the Public Accounts Committee which is led by the Nationalist Party on the Electrogas project”.
The committee has a Labour majority, but is headed by a PN chairman. Mizzi was kicked out of the Labour Party last year and remains in Parliament as an independent MP.
The meeting is scheduled for today at 2pm.
In his post, Mizzi said: This exercise is nothing more than a partisan attack on the project which shifted energy generation in Malta from polluting Heavy Fuel Oil to cleaner Gas and renewable energy, a project that has brought so many benefits to the Maltese and Gozitan people, as well as to the economy of our country.
“The benefits include Malta having amongst the lowest electricity tariffs in Europe, the reduction in emissions, the closure of the Marsa Power Station, the Enemalta financial and operational turnaround and the acceleration of our economic growth. It is clear that the political agenda of the Nationalist Party was from the very beginning against the shift to the use of natural gas for the generation of electricity in our country.
“The Electrogas project has already been scrutinized by the Office of the Auditor General, which has completely dispelled the Opposition's allegations.
“That is why I regard the call of the Public Accounts Committee as nothing more than a partisan political exercise pushed by the Nationalist Party.”
Mizzi had refused to answer questions on the Electrogas deal when he was summoned by the public inquiry investigating the murder of hournalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Mizzi was called up by the Public Accounts Committee as part of its investigations into the Electrogas deal.
The project was the basis of the electraol campaign of the Labour Party in 2013.
The deal has since been at the centre of corruption claims and has even been mentioned in court proceedings as a potential motive for Caruana Galizia's assassination.
Mizzi had been called in for police questioning and held in custody for 24 hours as part of a investigation linked to former Electrogas director Yorgen Fenech, who stands accused with being a mastermind in the murder. Mizzi has denied any involvement in the October 2017 murder.