Government keeping people in the dark on energy expenditure, PN says

Opposition spokesperson Ryan Callus says government should reveal €37 million power plant contract with Bonnici Brothers

The €37 million power plant (Photo: Enemalta)
The €37 million power plant (Photo: Enemalta)

Updated at 12:45pm with PL statement 

The government is keeping people in the dark over its energy expenditure, Nationalist Party spokesperson Ryan Callus said on Wednesday.

“Maltese citizens have every right to know how the Labour Government is wasting their money in the energy sector, especially when this sector highlights the incompetence in leadership. Secrecy in this sector is synonymous with the style adopted by the Labour Party in many areas,” Callus said.

The Opposition MP was reacting to a report by the Times which revealed the state-owned power provider rejected a freedom of information request over a copy of its €37 million power plant contract with Bonnici Brothers, saying doing so would “substantially and unreasonably divert resources” from its other operations.

“The contract for the Government to lease generators, in an attempt to ease the energy crisis it itself created due to a total lack of planning, has cost our country €37 million,” Callus said.

The €37 million power plant (Photo: Enemalta)
The €37 million power plant (Photo: Enemalta)

Callus said the “government of blackouts” continues to hide what people have a right to know.

“The PN Insists the Government must stop hiding how it is spending millions, and in the last hours, the Opposition has submitted a Parliamentary Question for these contracts and related documents to be published,” he said. “In the absence of this, what the Labour Government is hiding, the Nationalist Government will reveal when the time comes.”

Enemalta reacts

Reacting to the Times report, Enemalta said it was incorrectly stated it did not provide information.

“Enemalta clarifies that at no point did it refuse to provide the information; it only requested clarification on which period the information was being requested for. This was to ensure the entity could respond accurately and efficiently, without wasting resources,” it said. “Once the Times of Malta identified in its published news article which contracts it wanted, Enemalta invited the journalist to view them at an agreed date and time.”

Labour Party slams PN’s ‘rushed’ statement

Reacting to the statement, the Labour Party (PL) said slammed it for being ‘partisan’ and without seeking to learn the details.

“This is a tactic we've been seeing for some time, where the PN even holds press conferences based on fake news, only to go silent when the facts prove the opposite of what they said,” Labour said.

It continued by saying that such statements show the PN’s lack of strategy for the environment sector.