Siemens in Malta ahead of CEO visit on Electrogas following Schembri asset freeze

After Gasan moves to exit Electrogas, 33% shareholder Siemens AG arrives in Malta for talks

Siemens Italia CEO Claudio Picech
Siemens Italia CEO Claudio Picech

A delegation from Siemens is in Malta ahead of Siemens Italia CEO Claudio Picech’s visit on Monday, to discuss a way forward on the Electrogas power plant, after an asset freeze was ordered on Keith Schembri’s business group.

Schembri, one-time chief of staff to disgraced former prime minister Joseph Muscat, has been investigated on alleged kickbacks from Brian Tonna, the Nexia BT partner, on the sale of an IIP passport to a Russian family.

Schembri is also implicated in the assassination of the journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia due to his intimate association with Electrogas shareholder Yorgen Fenech, the Tumas magnate, who stands accused of masterminding the murder.

Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi, lawyer to the Caruana Galizia family, has asked the Prime Minister which government officials the Electrogas delegation will meet, and what will be on the agenda. 

“I have asked the PM in a parliamentary question… is it true these talks are tied to the crocodile tears from the Gasan Group on Electrogas, and if the government wants to cancel the bloodstained and corrupt contract of Electrogas? Is it true that Siemens has offered to meet the Police to provide information on corruption on the Electrogas contract?”

On Wednesday, the Tumas partners Gasan Group announced they would start an exit from the Electrogas consortium of shareholder. Gasan owns 33% of GEM Holdings, a joint venture with the Tumas Group and Paul Apap Bologna. Siemens AG and Azerbaijani state energy company Socar owns the rest of the shares.

Gasan have denied any allegations of corruption on the €200 million power plant that was Labour’s chief electoral promise in 2013 to use the gas plant to reduce energy bills. “We had absolutely nothing to do with it… If it did happen, we condemn it without reservation and trust that justice will be served,” they said of the 18-year power-purchase agreement sealed with the government.

In a letter to Siemens AG CEO Joe Kaeser, the civil society NGO Repubblika said the Gemran company should declare the extent of its knowledge of money laundering and kickbacks in the Electrogas deal and “do its part to have the contracts signed by Electrogas rescinded on the grounds that they were procured by corruption.”

The family of Daphne Caruana Galizia had already called on Siemens AG in an open letter, to honour commitments made in the US courts to fight corruption, as agreed with the US Department of Justice under its Deferred Prosecution Agreement.

“Siemens has made public and legally binding commitments, as part of a settlement for criminal action in the United States, to change the company’s role from a negative to a positive one in the fight against corruption. As a party to the corrupt Electrogas deal, Siemens is failing in those commitments,” the family wrote in the letter.

Siemens was accused of paying bribes on the design and construction of metro transit lines in Venezuela, power plants in Israel, and refineries in Mexico; and for mobile telephone networks in Bangladesh, national identity cards in Argentina, and medical devices in Vietnam, China, and Russia.

The US offered Siemens a Deferred Prosecution Agreement, where the company admits guilt and commits to change their ways of doing business.

In an attempt to fall in line with its obligations, the company set up a $100 million dollar global initiative to help organisations in their fight against corruption through training, action and education.