Updated | Speaker rules Enemalta debate can go ahead • PN calls for publication of contracts

Adds statement by the PN

Speaker Anglu Farrugia has ruled that the debate on the Enemalta Act could go ahead even though a memorandum of understanding signed with China in 2013 and the ElectroGas contract have not been tabled in parliament.

“There is no direct mention of the two companies mentioned by the Opposition,” Farrugia said in his ruling.

“It is a Minister’s responsibility or prerogative to present any documents he deems necessary and in a timely manner.”

Farrugia said similar rulings were given in March and May 2014 and in March 2010 by the Speaker Louis Galea. From the latter ruling, Farrugia said, the same principle was always quoted.

“It is the responsibility of the government, and not the Speaker’s, to see that documents are laid before the House in a timely manner. It is not for the Speaker to decide what documents are relevant,” the Speaker said, adding that such a principle was also observed in the House of Commons.

In the ruling he gave at the start of the sitting, Farrugia said he had studied the “generic” Act that established the legal guidelines for the transfer to an Enemalta plc.

The objects of the Bill are to make provision for the transfer of all the assets, rights, liabilities and obligation of Enemalta Corporation to Enemalta plc, to regulate the functions of distribution system operators and to repeal the Enemalta Act.

The Act sets up an Engineering Resources Ltd, a private limited liability company registered under the laws of Malta.

Yesterday evening, the Opposition argued it could not debate the Act for the transfers of Enemalta’s assets, rights, liabilities and obligations before it had the full details of the memorandum of understanding signed with China in September 2013.

In the mentioned MoU, Shanghai Power Electric agreed to invest €320 million in Enemalta. The Opposition also argued that the government had not published the contract signed with ElectroGas, the consortium that will develop the new power plant.

According to Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi, the Act had nothing to do with the Chinese memorandum of understanding. “It is about modernising Enemalta and changing the entity into one that generated economy,” Mizzi argued.

Following the Speaker’s ruling, the Nationalist Party issued a statement in which it criticised the government’s decision not to publish a number of contracts signed with private and foreign companies.

The PN said that in the past legislature, the then Labour Opposition had requested the publication of a contract related to energy before the discussion was to be held in parliament.

The Labour Opposition had requested the publication of an agreement reached between Enemalta and Liquigas Malta Ltd and a separate agreement between Enemalta and Gasco Energy Ltd. The discussion was about the transfer of government property in Benghajsa to Gasco Energy Ltd.

“The Opposition had every right to request the Speaker’s ruling on the presentation of these contracts and the Nationalist government had passed on the contracts to the Labour Opposition and tabled them in parliament a few days later,” the PN said.

“But today the Labour government is not using the same principle as Prime Minister Joseph Muscat refuses to publish ElectroGas contract and the MoU signed with Shanghai Electric Power.”

The PN once again urged the government to publish the contracts as soon as possible.