An audit team from a notoriously corrupt totalitarian state is here in Malta to “improve Enemalta’s corporate governance in terms of procurement”
You have to laugh. China is one of the most corrupt countries on earth. Corruption, bribery, gifts, path-smoothers and sweeteners are normal there, part of the culture.
You give people things to get what you want, and this at all levels. At the topmost end of the scale, the bribery makes John Dalli/Silvio Zammit’s Eur60 million request look like chickenfeed.
Without corruption, the system would collapse. The whole thing is corruption-driven, including the sale of luxury European goods in Shanghai and Beijing, which is commerce driven primarily by the gift (bribe) system.
Now the prime minister tells us – see The Malta Independent link below – that “an audit team from China is currently in Malta to better Enemalta’s governance in terms of procurement.”
Please.
Getting the Chinese to check corporate governance systems for procurement in a state corporation is like getting Gary Glitter, Erin Tanti, Rolf Harris and Jimmy Saville to write the code of ethics for teachers in a girls’ school.
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http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-07-14/news/world-far-bigger-than-europe-pm-says-on-governments-business-ties-with-china-5840732161/
All that has come out of this tragicomedy of the PM’s visit to China is nothing but risible.
China will now have access to every single piece of data that’s on Enemalta’s IT systems.
China doesn’t need to block my internet. It can now just turn off my computer.
Funnily enough Germany was first in the World Cup but was beaten by Little Malta in reaping benefits from China.
[Daphne – No wonder the Labour Party found it so easy to get your vote, Mr Loporto.]
#ejja, waslu fl-ahhar. We WeLCome the delekation from COrruptistan. Cittadini #ejja, nikkollaboraw maghhom please#
What is Enemalta going to procure, exactly? Cables and electricity poles? In a few months it will no longer be involved in electricity generation and is contractually bound to buy energy from Electrogas and the Chinese-owned BWSC plant.
Did the audit delegation turn up at Enemalta in their swimming trunks?
Sounds like the sale of Rover to the Chinese in 2004 all over again, this time with an energy company. Show interest, get the management drunk and get all you can and declare it insolvent the next day and ship it back to China.
If only this were a laughing matter!
Chug, chug, chug, the spin maching has spit its spin on the Sai Mizzi saga:
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140714/local/update-1-sai-mizzis-contract-pay-slip-published.527711
If the ‘success’ with China is being attributed to Sai Mizzi, was she working for free, from Malta, since pre-2010 miskina?! Who exactly is responsible for not informing the electorate of the deal struck back then between one democracy and another?
Gejjin biex jaraw kemm se jqacctu haddiema.
China loses around 86 billion dollars a year to corruption. Individual families have raked in tens of billions of dollars.
The Carnegie Foundation estimates that 10% of government spending is siphoned off through corruption: kickbacks, bribes or outright theft.
The chance of a corrupt official going to jail is estimated at 3%.
Muscat’s friend in China, president Xi Jinping (he signed the MOU with Muscat in 2010) says he’s cracking down on corruption.
The Financial Times reports that Xi’s crackdown protects him and his cronies.
Human Rights Watch reports that anticorruption activists are jailed.
What are the odds that Xi Jinping would crack down on any Malta-China corruption?
Dear Daphne, this is all sour grapes, you know that Europe is on her knees begging China for busines deals. Dr. Muscat, our young and bright PM is doing just that.
That’s total nonsense and you know it. “Europe” is not begging China for anything. European countries are *selling* to China, not selling out.
What is Muscat selling to China, other than Malta’s economic independence and its loyalty?
Did we get a new PM since Muscat?
Fantastic.
Perfectly clear that the PM does not want any of the big international accountancy firms because they don’t suit his purpose.
In the same Malta Independent article:
“He said that this is the first MoU of this kind a European country has made with China.”
Also reported by Times of Malta:
“Dr Muscat said the government had been assured by the Chinese government that the MoU was the first of its kind between China and other countries.”
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140714/local/pm-lauds-china-mou-opposition-calls-for-tangible-results.527713
Isn’t this the second of its kind? The first one was signed in April 2010 by Joseph Muscat himself. It’s written here, on the People’s Daily:
http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90776/90883/6944809.html
“The CPC and Malta Labor Party signed a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation during Muscat’s visit…”
I would argue that Muscat signed the same MoU twice in order to formalise it now his party are in govt.
Quite a possibility.
Il-Laburisti m’humiex tajba biex imexxu. Bid-diffetti kollha, in-Nazzjonalisti dejjem mexxew ahjar.
Enron all over again.
If the Chinese are going to audit Enemalta accounts in the manner that John Abela (Horwath Malta) used to audit the Daewoo accounts they should have no problem in qualifying them.
There again it is possible that they will be prepared to accept whatever is presented to them.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-28305134
On the topic of Confucius Institutes:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/05/us/critics-worry-about-influence-of-chinese-institutes-on-us-campuses.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140715/local/gozo-bridge-should-never-have-been-been-proposed-dlh.527823
Is there anyone out there who believes this bridge can in any way be feasible if it doesn’t pass directly over Comino’s blue lagoon?
Get real if you still do.
In the end it will become those in favour of two spans passing right through Comino and misguided environmentalists reduced to insist on having a humunguous direct link, Babylonian trusses inside aircraft approach.
So Fliegu was as deep as we thought it was, tunnel becomes a helter skelter.
One expects the FAA to have checked who gets to consult on its construction by now. So Astrid, will it be yes or no? Balzan’s too taken in at the moment.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140714/local/busuttil-we-were-right-sai-mizzi-gets-13000-a-month-ambassadorial-package.527716
Not on topic but come on, wardrobe allowance?
She has an allowance for everything under the sun. Except food? Unless I missed that out.
Right now, Mr Kevin Valenzia is either laughing his head off or fuming.
Four of the world’s best audit and management consultancy firms – PwC, Deloitte, Grant Thornton and KPMG – have extensive offices in Malta. PwC alone employs more than 500 staff.
What does Joseph Muscat do but go and get an audit firm from arch-corrupt China.
So much for all the glitzy Conferences on Malta as a Hub for Financial Services and Dinners With Business Leaders.
Mr Valenzia, sir, please, for our sake, speak out against this.
Did you just redefine the big 4?
No. I said “four of the best”, not “the best four”.
Words have a precise meaning. I use them with precision.
We don’t know what the audit firm’s brief is or who they are.
Why does the minor shareholder get to choose the firm’s auditor?
It sound like Chinese executives are exploring opportunities for graft.
If the highly-corrupt Chinese government is faced with an audit by one of these big four it would get an acute attack of angioneurotic oedema.
Proper audits are anathema to filthy governments like the one in China.
They are eminently allergic to them.
The PL is vainly attempting to change international political realities. Only for the cwiec.
The Chinese government was, is and will be for the foreseeable future, rotten, corrupt, undemocratic, murderous, lying, vile and obnoxious.
“an audit team from China is currently in Malta to better Enemalta’s governance in terms of procurement.”
In other words:
“The Chinese auditors are here to check Enemalta’s books to confirm that their business proposal of buying the BWSC plant is financially advantageous.”
They might even argue that they are being overcharged and demand a part refund.