First they boasted about him excitedly; now they’re pretending not to know Shiv Nair
The Malta Independent reports this morning:
Asked about the government’s consultant, Shiv Nair, who is blacklisted by the World Bank, Dr Muscat said that there never existed a contract between Mr Shiv and the Maltese government, however added that there exists a letter of appointment which was never followed up.
He said that he hadn’t been aware Mr Shiv was blacklisted by the World Bank until reports started flowing in.
Asked how come he wasn’t aware when he is the head of government and one of his ministers, Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi, was working hand in hand with Mr Shiv related to energy meetings held in Qatar earlier this year and who accompanied Mr Mizzi during such meetings, Dr Muscat replied by saying that what was for sure is that Mr Shiv helped pave the way for talks between Malta and Qatar.
There was no contract, but there was “a letter of appointment which was never followed up”.
What?
It is the government which gives a letter of appointment to its consultants, and not the consultants who give a letter of appointment to the government.
By the prime minister’s own admission now, the government gave Shiv Nair a letter of appointment. So what was all that lying for?
71 Comments Comment
Leave a Comment
According to iNews though:
Muscat sostna li hu kien konxju li kien hemm kwistjoni ta’ blacklisting fuq Shiv Nair….
everybody twisting and turning
All one has to do is to go back a couple of weeks to see what he was saying.
L-Orizzont carried it in bold type, ‘Miljunarju ingliz’
If it wasn’t ‘followed up’ then why was Shiv Nair in Qatar with Mizzi?
And why was Shiv Nair appointed to Malta Enterprise?
Lawrence Gonzi was in Qatar last year. Discussions included Italy and the EU.
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/national/Qatar-eyeing-1-billion-investment-in-Enemalta-20120418
Guess what, Muscat’s screwed and will do anything to distract. Given this nation’s tendency to betray itself, he’s managing. Cash instead of work.
Muscat managed 200 million and another 30 million. Lawrence Gonzi talked billions, no strings attached, convinced and alas, right.
If Labour think we can repeat Mintoff’s cold war brinkmanship and double dealing he’s nuts.
And still, One News will manage to manipulate and twist this story around. Let’s see tonight’s news bulletin.
Will the person who issued and signed the letter of appointment please give a copy to the press or table a copy in parliament.
Better still – will the PN MPs request a copy of the signed letter of appointment ?
What a slippery eel our Prime Minister is. The fact remains that Dr Muscat’s government let this person be crucial in the setting up of a meeting at very high level between Minister Konrad Mizzi and the energy minister in Qatar. “And I think he fulfilled his role in a very significant way,” Dr Muscat stressed.
China’s secret weapon managed to keep under the radar! Ha ha ha.
Nothing slippery about this guy, he’s just one big porky pie!
And he doesn’t even know how to hide it.
But then again, why should he? Two ministers have been caught lying and nothing happened, so why should we expect anything different from our prime minister?
He may be slimey, but what matters are the results. I don’t see investment other than Chinese puzzles.
Meantime both imports and exports decreased, trade gap visibly widening.
The Times reports further:
“No, I did not know he was blacklisted – we were not informed of that,” he told the media.
Who was he expecting to inform him? He should have done his homework properly. Anyway, it is not very credible to say that you hardly know anything about a person with whom you are working closely. That is a gross irresponsibility.
I feel the same about Muscat.
I voted for him because no-one told me he was a lying twat.
1. Well, the first conclusion is that Shiv Nair did not tell his client, Joseph Muscat, that Nair was blacklisted by the World Bank. Such black listing is a material fact in the relationship between a consultant and the employer.
Therefore, this constitutes already a very serious violation of trust from any consultant towards his employer.
And the client here is not an ordinary client with little reputational risk, but one with huge public exposure, as Prime Minister and as head of a member state of the EU.
And the client here had made the subject of blacklisting by the World Bank one of public controversy during the construction of the Delimara powerstation.
And the client here had made specific public promises not to employ persons who are black listed by the World Bank.
2. The Prime Minister is responsible for the background checks on his consultants. Any failure in that process is his personal political responsibility. It is clear that he did not carry out that task with due diligence.
This is not lying.
The precise term to describe this behavior is confabulation.
Are we now entering the realm of pathological behavioural patterns ?
Spot on. It’s beyond his mental capabilities, yet he’ll carry on with the ‘argument’.
The only motivation Muscat has is to push responsibility onto models of his fancy. He is utterly unaware of himself.
Eur40 million has been earmarked as an increase in indirect taxation for 2014 , which is a very significant amount . If for example VAT rate was increased from 18% to 20% , this would generate an additional Eur 50 million revenue.
Eur 30 million of that indirect taxation increase will come from sale of passports . This is the great surprise.
The €30 million from the sale of passports is over and above the €50 million harvested through indirect taxation.
Can you imagine the thorough due diligence they will carry out for the new citizenship approval.
That the prime minister did not know of Shiv Nair being blacklisted is NO EXCUSE.
He as prime minister should have demanded a DUE DILIGENCE as is normal with serious organisations let alone a government.
If he insists that he did not know and expects us to swallow that, then he is not fit to be prime minister.
He can’t fib his way around for another four years, even because he lacks any trace of nous.
The impression given is that of a junior who can’t be trusted with anything.
I bet he forgot the possibility of having been seen at that dinner. It suits him to believe otherwise so it’s mentally put away.
This is not leadership material.
There is no way he can sustain this. It simply has to come crashing down around him.
I do not believe for one second, that all of those on the government benches, EVERY last one of them, are sitting comfortably amid this blatant corruption, lying and subterfuge at top level.
There MUST be someone of integrity there who would speak out, thus sliding in the thin end of the wedge.
Exactly. In fact, how can he be a Prime Minister when he isn’t even a minister? The term itself means that he is a minister that leads other ministers. I suppose the right terminology would be”leader of the house”. Everything to do with him feels so superficial.
But alas, he is still the chief of government and as Simon said we’re heading straight into the wall. The trouble is that he will make us suffer with him.
Is there anything similar to impeachment under Maltese law?
I was thinking my lawyer friends could force an enquiry and then nail the PM for perjury.
Can you imagine GonziPN not doing a through due diligence?
Muscat’s body language is very telling. On the Times of Malta clip his speech is slower than usual, which seems to indicate a very careful choice of words.
His wide-open eyes when asked pertinent questions and his avoidance of eye contact with the reporter raise even more questions.
But what I find most bizarre is how any government can make use of a third-party broker and not carry out the necessary compliance checks.
What Muscat hasn’t told us is how this person was introduced to him, how long he’s known him, and what are the terms of their “agreement”.
The most telling part of this debacle is not what Muscat has told us, but what he hasn’t told us.
Shiv Nair did not fool Dr. Joseph Muscat but he fooled the Prime Minister of MALTA
If Muscat expects us to believe he didn’t know Shiv Nair was blacklisted by the World Bank, why does he expect us to believe that due diligence has been carried out in the case of the 65 citizenship applicants he has already lined up?
Now I am worried. It’s not the lie itself that shocks. What shocks is the mind of a boy who ran after and got a man’s job, and having done so, now seems already bored with it.
He is not bothering to take it seriously anymore and does not care one iota that there are consequences for his followers or the rest of the country.
It’s a game he played and the game is over. All he has left is a list of creditors who are chasing him to be paid.
Not worth wasting time on Labour. They’re there for the next decade or so, have never had any respect for law, twisting and ‘adapting’ all for – and to – their convenience. We’re lumped with them thanks to the selfish attitude of a few, and the ignorance of any.
My only (twisted) consolation is that the racist, anti-(black) immigrant, pseudo-Catholic fools who voted Labour because the PN ‘introduced divorce’ and because of the immigrants will now see Malta potentially flooded with criminal, undesirables, who may also be polygamous Muslims, and black ones to boot.
Now go and get a well-deserved rest, and leave the investigation and reporting to the (incompetent) journalists, including Ivan Camilleri, who is partly responsible for putting Muscat at the helm.
the ignorance of many …
If Shiv Nair has no contract, then Muscat must answer several questions.
1. When a newspaper asked Malta Enterprise for a copy of Shiv Nair’s contract, why didn’t Malta Enterprise refuse to issue a copy rather than saying there was no contract at all?
2. Why did Chris Cardona, the minister responsible for Malta Enterprise, say he was not involved in Nair’s contract if there wasn’t one?
3. Why did Chris Cardona say that Nair was a government envoy and that, as minister, he could not appoint government envoys, suggesting that the decision was Muscat’s?
4. If Muscat carries out due diligence on persons appointed to positions of trust, why didn’t he know Nair was blacklisted by the World Bank?
5. If Muscat appointed, or was about to appoint, Nair to a position of trust without carrying out due diligence, why should we believe any of Muscat’s appointees are trustworthy?
6. If Sai Mizzi Liang was engaged through the same process by which Nair was, or was to be, engaged, why should we believe that due diligence was carried out in her case?
7. If Muscat himself said that politicians don’t always tell the truth, why should we believe anything he says, particularly about his relationship with Nair, both in opposition and now that he is in government?
These are all questions that MUST be put to Joseph Muscat formally.
it’s like a small kid covering a lie with another lie
Of course Muscat is lying. His infamous furrow made a special appearance again.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20131010/local/pm-says.489762#.UlalYcsaySM
If Muscat now understands that he cannot and shouldn’t deal with Nair, can he also explain why Nair was in Ecuador on government business?
How can we be sure that, at no time, in any manner or form, will Malta’s government deal with Nair, Nair’s companies, or any contact made through Nair, which is essential if we are to believe that Nair is not profiting at Malta’s expense?
This is exactly what rating agencies look out for.
In developed countries with an electorate having a modicum of rational ability the backlash to such a situation would be incredible. Resignations would follow. However, Malta is another story. How far we have fallen in just a few, sad months.
Thank goodness for the internet. Thank goodness no one can get away with anything anymore.
Not only do we have vital information that is available to everyone at the click of a mouse. We also can read news articles from days or even weeks before, meaning that headlines don t have a shelf life of 24 hours anymore.
What Muscat hasn t realised about this world we now live in is that he can no longer drip feed information, changing some details here and there, and rely on poeple forgetting things which enables him to fool the masses.
With this statement he has shown his complete disregard for the country he claims to love so much.
Thanks to these words, telling us there was no contract ( sure, because things cannot be arranged, actions cannot be carried out and agreements cannot be discussed over the phone), he is going to start yet another endless quarrel between citizens about what actually happened.
We will now have to cope with years of people hurling allegations at their opponents and working themselves up just because the allegations exist, prefixing everything with the phrase” if this is true” and acting like it is.
We will have hypotheses on top of counter hypotheses , all because ” there was no contract”.
And why? Because Muscat’s supporters DON’T hold him to account, they don’t care about the image of a country nor the implications of these events which have unfolded. They only care about the Pl and want it to be the only party that can claim to have had the feather of the country among it’s ranks: Mintoff.
The difference between parties is not about ideologies or policies, but identity. The Pl diehards must have the identity of the country in their hands, the PL must be the founders of it, and until that is cemented in history and in everyone’s mind, they will not care about what Muscat does and will let him get away with it.
He facilitates all this by not showing any respect for the position he holds and for the job he has to do. He knows what he did was wrong, otherwise there would have been a contract, and not all these meetings and sightings and no contract.
Would it not have made more commercial/dignified sense to embrace teh famous Sir James Dyson rather than the infamous Shiv Nair – or whatever his name is?
I thought you would be interested in this: Tomorrow’s world: incredible James Dyson inventions $http://innovation.uk.msn.com/design/tomorrows-world-incredible-james-dyson-inventions#scpshrjmh$
Your scoops on Shiv Nair should earn you the “Journalist of the year award”.
[Daphne – There is no such award. There is only a competition between self-entrants, run by an advertising agency, which is wholly different. And in any case, I’m not interested.]
Compare the video clip on Times of Malta with an earlier one of the Blokka Bajda and note the similarities in the facial expression.
In the interview on Maltarightnow, the PM uses the terms “issa ser jintemm” and “ingaggjat”. In the first instance this confirms that there existed a relationship that shall now be terminated. In the second instance, he confirms that there was an engagement.
QP – Qatar Petroleum
22/07/2013 | News release
Energy and Industry Minister holds discussions with Maltese Minister of Energy and Conservation of Water
distributed by noodls on 22/07/2013 15:26
0 0 0
Doha, Qatar • 22 July 2013 – His Excellency Dr. Mohammed bin Saleh Al-Sada, Minister of Energy and Industry, met today with His Excellency Mr. Konrad Mizzi, Minister of Energy and Conservation of Water of the Republic of Malta, and his accompanying delegation.
Talks during the meeting covered means to enhance cooperation in the energy sector between the two countries and other issues of mutual interest.
The meeting, which was held at Qatar Petroleum headquarters, was attended by H.E. Eng. Essa bin Hilal Al-Kuwari, President of Qatar General Electricity & Water Corporation (KAHRAMAA) as well as by senior Qatar Petroleum (QP) and Qatar Petroleum International (QPI) executives. The meeting was also attended by Mr. Shiv Nair, the consultant to the Maltese Prime Minister and a delegation of Maltese officials.
– See more at: http://www.noodls.com/view/015702D1FF210665BBDA6AEEE85F425145218FF2#sthash.f3gUU9nJ.dpuf
On the 8th October in parliament Joseph Muscat said the “internet claims” about Nair are being “looked into”.
The next day Times of Malta reported that Joseph Muscat denied meeting Nair.
Joseph Muscat could have denied meeting Nair when he spoke in parliament.
Why didn’t he do it?
http://markanthonysammut.blogspot.com/2013/10/muscat-checked-with-due-diligence-but.html
“Muscat tripped up badly when he emphasised repeatedly, in and out of parliament, that Nair was ‘strumentali’ in making contact with Qatar.
Malta ALREADY has connections with Qatar. Qatar financed the evacuation and medical care here in Malta of the injured from Libya, and put money into humanitarian relief to Libya. They didn’t do that in a vacuum and good relations between countries are not automatically terminated by a change in government, though they can sour very fast.
Muscat had to involve Nair in that meeting in Qatar. Make of that what you will as to who is working for whom.”
If he was given a letter of appointment, he was appointed presumably as an envoy with an associated remuneration.
The question to ask is whether this appointment has been withdrawn.
What exactly was he appointed as? Can’t the opposition ask for the letter of appointment to be presented in parliament now that we know it exists?
Is this government unable to make foreign contacts without the help of these shady people?. After all during the Gonzi administration the President visited Qatar and met all the important people in the Qatar administration. What’s the problem with Muscat?
The problem is that it’s not up to Muscat to decide what agreements are made.
Definitely not in our name ie.
We have to remember that in his line of work, Shiv Nair deals mostly with politicians. So, when the World Bank blacklisted him because of corruption, he must have corrupted politicians and must have repeated it so many times that he came to the attention of an organisation like the World Bank.
What we have is therefore a notorious, international corrupter of politicians who is – and has been for some time – very close to our most powerful politician.
You know what the saddest thing is?
That, yet again, it’s a private individual who runs a blog in her spare time who has uncovered all of this. And the ‘established’ press is interested in Facebook groups for and against the George Cross, tourists who strip after having visited Malta, while sheepishly copying mind-numbing press releases from demented national authorities and information offices.
That’s the saddest part. All of this is out there. And those whose profession it is to make it known just don’t.
It would be interesting to know why Nair was blacklisted.
This is going to reach saturation point in a way that nothing will surprise us anymore. Such scandals have become the order of the day.
Shiv Nair fulfilled his role in a very significant way, we are told by Muscat.
He paved the way for Konrad Mizzi to have very important talks with the Qatar government and all this for 6000 euro a year. Now why would a multi millionaire bother to do all this work for peanuts. Definitely something fishy there.
The more time passes the more Muscat is showing that he is not even good at telling lies in a convincing way.
If the PM and, all his government at that, cannot carry out a basic and simple due diligence exercise on Shiv Nair when such information is available on the internet, then how can the PM boast that due diligence will be carried out on foreigners purchasing EU passports from Hanut tal-Merca Malta. One of the bidding companies to provide such a service is now claiming that even the selection process of the winning bidder was vitiated. What a grand marketing exercise prior to the opening of Hanut tal-Merca Malta!
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20131010/local/pm-says.489762
Watching the video in the link above, it is clear how one needs to examine every sentence, and then every word, and then the entire context, of what the Prime Minister says when he is replying to questions or making a statement.
He can dismember an argument, scatter its pieces all over the place, and leaves one with more questions than answers after he has spoken.
For instance, “…sitt elef ewro fis-sena jekk m’inix sejjer zball.”
So he covered himself in the eventuality that it turns out that the 6,000 euros were due every week. How are we supposed to be sure it was 6,000 euros per week or per year, if the Prime Minister himself, who appointed this consultant, is not sure about it himself?
“…b’letter of appointment imma li qatt ma giet segwita imbaghad b’konsulenza b’kuntratt…”
What exactly does this mean? As pointed out by Daphne, if there was a letter of appointment, one does not need a contract. In fact, if there was a letter of appointment, this almost implies that Nair was employed, and not engaged as a consultant.
In August, Malta Today had actually reported that Nair was on Malta Enterprise’s payroll. “Energy guru on Malta Enterprise’s payroll to promote investment.”
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/businessdetails/business/businessnews/Energy-guru-on-Malta-Enterprise-s-payroll-to-promote-investment-20130821
Is it not employees who are listed on payroll?
Moreover, what Malta Today revealed in the article is sourced from a government spokesman and shows in specific detail what was the government’s intention about Nair:
“”Malta Enterprise engaged Mr Shiv Shankaran Nair to identify concrete leads for investment promotion in China, the Middle East and South East Asia, including introductions to the individuals and companies concerned,” the spokesperson said.”
Seeing the letter of appointment will answer many questions. Especially because it seems that it was not the Prime Minister himself who issued that letter. Had he done so, he would know whether the 6,000 euros were annual or weekly, wouldn’t he?
Muscat said that Shiv Nair was to be paid €6000 yearly. He seems to have lost a few zeros there.
There’s the qualifier: “jekk m’inhiex sejjer zball” before the mention of the €6,000.
Delve into each and every of his qualifiers, it’s the tactic that gives him the space he needs – at the moment.
Qualifiers are meant to refine thought and language, not confuse it.
That expression coming from Gonzi would have had a positive weighting. Coming from Joseph Muscat, the weighting given needs to be negative.
Note to journalists and the NP: Squeeze out any room wriggled for in such qualifiers.
Those who saw Joseph Muscat answering questions about Nair could see the tell-tale vertical furrow on his forehead.
This time it was showing like never before.
He was lying and knew he was lying.
Usually he does not what he is talking about and this tell tale forehead line just becomes visible.
Seconds later when he is answering the truth, his forehead becomes perfectly smooth.
Joseph’s forehead is his worst enemy.
Il-PL qieghdin b’imhatra bejnithom min se jhawwad, idawwar u jigdeb l-aktar.
Not only did Nair set up the meeting for Mizzi, but he sat in on it, too.
And the PM never knew he was blacklisted. Mela nejk u pozi ghandu biss. Jew hafna mutetti.
The meeting was also attended by Mr. Shiv Nair, the consultant to the Maltese Prime Minister and a delegation of Maltese officials.
See more at: http://www.noodls.com/view/015702D1FF210665BBDA6AEEE85F425145218FF2#sthash.f3gUU9nJ.dpuf
Guess Edward Debono’s coaching is not working any more. Joseph Muscat needs propper advisers rather than con men out to make make themselves richer by prying on proud idiots.
Inkompetenti jew giddieb il-Prim, but it’s probably both.
It clearly shows what a rotten upbringing he had as a spoiled child who got away with murder uttering nonsense and fibs. The problem is that he thinks that we are all as gullible as his family are. What does he think – that we can all be duped?
[Daphne – Well, he’s roughly right about that, as the last election showed.]
First he said he never met Shiv Nair (at least he didn’t deny knowing him). Today he said there was a letter of appointment (of Nair’s consultancy services) which wasn’t followed up.
Besides the lying, what is this – is there a letter of appointment or not? Is he getting tangled in his own rope?
Despite the due diligence applied he said he was aware that Nair is permanently blacklisted. Now that he has been made aware of it, he’s waiting for confirmation from his international sources. Why didn’t he mention the World Bank by name?
Until he receives this confirmation, if it ever arrives, he will be concocting other excuses and fact-twisting to justify his appointment of Shiv Nair’s services.
Meanwhile, he repeatedly assured us that Shiv was instrumental for Minister Mizzi’s meeting with the Oman delegation,
What we would like to know is whether this blacklisted fraudster was involved in Muscat’s meeting with the Chinese government either now or when he met them when in Opposition about 3 years ago.
Sorry, there’s a missing NOT before ‘aware’ in 3rd para. line 1.
I just heard the PM on Net TV claiming that they had carried out due diligence on Shiv Nair and that nothing negative had come out.
Government should fire whoever does its due diligence. If one woman single-handedly with at best the help of a few amateur scouts managed to uncover the truth about this individual, then they cannot be very good can they?
You can see from their facial expressions and dithering that all the ministers and parliamentary secretaries are extremely uncomfortable and struggling to rebut allegations of irregularities in their modus operandi.
This after all their assurances of having a road map, costed and dusted. The architect of this infamous roadmap must have been Baldrick. U halluna.
We really need to keep this headline present.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20131009/local/PM-denies-meeting-blacklisted-adviser.489569#.UlebhmthiSM
One definite proof the PM is a liar.
Although now everybody knows that Shiv Nair has been blacklisted by the World Bank, Government, including Joseph Muscat, has not yet confirmed that his shifty services will no longer be used by Konrad and all the merry band.
Ghax taf int, “Mr Shiv helped pave the way for talks between Malta and Qatar.”
Due diligence should have been carried out before taken on Nair’s services. Meanwhile Times of Malta reports “Company to carry out due diligence of applicants for citizenship”.
If this company carries out the same due diligence the government carries out then we have good reason to fear that a sizeable donation to Labour’s coffers (or worse, directly to individuals) will make a difference.