VIDEO: On Zaren's brand new superyacht

In an identical rehash of the 2007 vacation with the former secretary-general Joe Saliba, Zaren Vassallo has also courted Paul Borg Olivier aboard his luxury superyacht for a much-needed summer break.

Borg Olivier was in fact spotted together with his wife lounging on board the Perla, a brand new 75-foot Princess superyacht, in Sicily by many Maltese boaters who were berthed in different parts of Sicily.

Watch video describing the boat

This is how Borg Olivier justified his vacation: "The trip you refer to must be seen in its perspective as a short trip, in my personal capacity, on board a boat of a friend. In that context, any other speculation would seem frivolous."

The PN secretary general later called the newsroom and asked: “what are you going to do to me? (x’se taghmluli?), and added that he intended to add something more to his reply, but he admitted that he decided not to say it.

“I better not say more…perhaps you will quote me,” Borg Olivier said, hanging up.

Moreover in his reply he asked MaltaToday to reproduce his answer in a box to avoid any right of reply.

For the second time running, the presence of a high PN official holidaying with Vassallo confirms the intimate relationship between the party and the magnate, a former PN mayor who has admitted to financing the party.

But it also raises questions on how the Vassallo connection has influenced party, and even government policy: the Vassallo Builders Group is the civil works contractor for Danish firm BWSC, the controversial firm that will build the €200 million extension for the Delimara power station. In the face of serious allegations of corruption – as yet unproven but never criminally investigated – and confirmed irregularities in the tendering, the government has stood by its decision to go ahead with the 144MW extension.

Back in 2007, when Joe Saliba boarded the Princess Charlene to holiday at sea with Vassallo, he protested with Super One journalist Charlon Gouder that he was “not the government… I’m the party, and I don’t give contracts… contracts are won by tender.”

Three years later, as a BWSC contractor Vassallo had become part of the controversial Delimara tender that was being investigated by the Auditor General, who flagged several irregularities in the way Enemalta dealt with the process.

At the helm of Enemalta was Alex Tranter, the corporation’s chairman who admitted his conflict of interest: he was a director of the Vassallo Builders Group. Tranter had declared his conflict with the investments ministry, but this did little to restore faith in the choice of Enemalta for the prototype BWSC technology.

More recently, Tranter was involved in the sale of a solar technology firm he was employed with to the American solar giant Sun Power, with whom Vassallo Builders Group has teamed up to provide solar energy for the grid from PV panels installed on government buildings.

Unlike Saliba, Borg Olivier may not have the deep friendship the former secretary-general enjoyed with Vassallo – Saliba’s career started in construction – of whom he boasted of as a “personal friend” and a “known PN activist who never hid his political allegiance.”

Saliba had also admitted in a MaltaToday interview that Vassallo was a financial contributor to the PN, and that his two-week holiday had been his “fifth or sixth” holiday on the same boat. Even Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi was aware of his Mediterranean cruise. “Of course he knew. Half the party must have known.”