Hadn’t they said they had a concrete road map u li kollox kien kostid?
“Sorry, miss, the dog ate my road map.”
I distinctly remember Karmenu Vella, Il-Guy (now inflicted on the European Commission) saying that during the general election campaign, before they edged him out of the way, hid him behind a black-out curtain, put some fresh batteries in Con-Rod Mizzi, and wheeled him out instead.
They had a road map – sorry, roat mepp. U kollox kien kostid. Kellhom KOLLOX ippjanat u lest. The Chinese were on board, the ElectroGas investors were lined up (pretending not to be) and everything was sorted.
It was just so positive.
And now we find out, 19 months after Taghna Lkoll gets into government, that Taghna Lkoll is still in discussing with the Chinese dictatorship. And those discussions look like they’re going nowhere.
They were even reduced to staging a little scene for the government cameraman the other day, with Chinese extras they probably picked up from a restaurant or massage parlour, and paid a fee by the hour to put on a hard hat and pretend they were a delegazzjoni from Shanghai Electric.
Why would there be a delegation from Shanghai Electric in Malta for meetings right now when we were told that the reason Con-Rod Mizzi was in Beijing (not Shanghai, where the corporation is headquartered) to have meetings with them?
The government then released the lovely fake video, which some media houses carried with the disclaimer ‘VIDEO PROVIDED BY THE GOVERNMENT’.
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http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-10-17/local-news/Government-will-give-more-details-on-new-power-station-when-talks-with-China-are-concluded-6736123940
Jahsbu li kullhadd mazzun u jridu jbellghu ir-ross bil-labra.
95%. Kwazi kullhadd.
The mysterious 5%.
I’m afraid most are! Was having dinner yesterday with some friends and their believe that its only a couple of months delay is incredible. Oh well … as long as the bills are ‘lower’
Not mysterious at all, my dear Logical. Just go to your boss, and ask for the Rapport Post-Elettorali (not the Rapport tat-Telfa, which is just an anti-Daphne diatribe), preferably the ones written by Richard Cachia Caruana back in the day. It’s all there. He was the only who could understand demographics or market segmentation.
Then petition your boss to bring him back.
The government is in a panic. Desperate times call for a desperate response.
The rats are in a corner.
The liars have been caught with their pants down. How could they still be holding discussions when they sealed the power deal with Electrogas in May?
What sort of government is this: sign now, negotiate later?
This all has whiffs of ‘il-kbir ghadu gej,” and it’s not something we’re going to be taking our hats off to.
The media houses acted also in collusion with the government.
Thank you.
The public doesn’t want “more details” but the contract itself. and what does Konrad Mizzi mean with “when talks with China are concluded”? What about the contract signed last March? Hadn’t talks been concluded then?
I don’t feel offended so much by the government’s incompetence as by their arrogance. Six months after pompously signing the contract with Shangai Electric, Mizzi glibly tells us that talks are almost concluded. It doesn’t even cross his mind to offer explanations; the public doesn’t deserve them. And what’s worse is that he’s right.
Spot on.
The public does not deserve any explanations not when it was idiotic enough to vote this motley group of clowns into government.
The public deserves one thing and that is to be shot.
Typical Labour they start to panic after 18 months in government.
Well, the roadmap only focussed on the positive and overlooked the fact that electricity needs a negative charge to be generated.
The way the negotiations with China have been drawn out give a new meaning to the phrase “astonishingly quick.”
Why is the Prime Minister not telling Xi Jinping to “wake up and smell the coffee,” and that if he doesn’t want the BWSC plant, then that used car salesman, Shiv Nair, can sell it to someone else for a nice commission?
Why isn’t the Prime Minister stamping his feet and threatening to push back the Chinese delegation?
Why aren’t pictures of Xi Jinping circulating on Facebook, with comments on where to stuff his 150MW of power from BWSC?
In the meantime, Gasol plc has published its annual report for 31 March 2014, available here on the front page:
http://www.gasolplc.com/
The financial numbers refer to the year to 31 March 2014, a date before the alleged signing of the contract between Electrogas and Enemalta as reported by The Times in May. But the directors’ statement is dated 11 September 2014, so the report includes information on important events between the two dates.
Here are some interesting facts:
1. As I had pointed out before, there has been a purge in the board of the company. Three directors resigned without explanation, and one died. The company does not have a chairman of the board.
2. The company more than doubled its losses from its previous year. Losses in 2014 were £11 million.
3. The losses include a full charge for the company’s entire goodwill of £3 million. Well, they seem to have come to the realisation that they have lost the credibility they had here in Malta, if any.
4. The shareholders owe the company £13 million in the capital accounts. If Gasol’s shareholders show no trust in their company by leaving it adequately capitalised, why should we have any faith in their company?
5. The company has more borrowings (£27 million) than it has wealth (£17 million). What was Joseph Muscat saying about Enemalta having excess debt?
6. Gasol did not make any investment of relevance in the past year.
7. Gasol now has a number of subsidiaries and joint ventures, including some which are registered in the Republic of the Seychelles. Sigh.
8. The report confirms that African Gas Development Corporation Limited, a company incorporated and registered in the Seychelles, owns 65.7% of Gasol, and that Mr. Ethelbert Cooper has a “beneficial interest (through an intermediary company) in African Gas Development Corporation Limited.” The report also says that, above this structure, the companies named here are ultimately controlled by Klone Trust. This is new information about Gasol. No information could be traced online about this trust. I hope it is not registered in the Bahamas.
9. In the list of important events occurring from 31 March, there is absolutely no reference to any deal signed by the company in Malta. There is not even any reference to the acquisition of any shares in Electrogas Malta, let alone the signing of any important contract with Enemalta.
Judging by the annual report of Gasol, if Joseph Muscat or Konrad Mizzi are expecting them to lower the electricity tariffs of Malta, they must be hallucinating.
Gasol seems to need financial help itself in order to recover from a very bad financial situation. I cannot see how their shareholders are going to put any money in Malta before they put it in Gasol.
But of course, if Gasol is being used as a vehicle – or as we now know, as part of some trust – read fund for the money of hidden third parties – hidden behind secretive tax-haven jurisdictions, then the money may soon be forthcoming. China has a lot of it.
And Ethelbert Cooper, a “financial engineer” and a former consultant of Don Mhkwanazi on the setting up and operation of the National Empowerment Trust Investment Fund in South Africa knows very well how trusts work.
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-10-16/local-news/PN-s-controversial-energy-night-tariff-proposal-will-be-considered-by-government-after-all-6736123870
http://youtu.be/C0ylRxLZ2Lg
No comment.
They were supposed to “hit the ground running”.
Msieken. They hit the wall running instead.
Can we have the costings of the projects forecasted by the then PL (in opposition) compared to the actual figures of those projects which so far have started & perhaps completed, including the cost of the Cabinet?
Seriously, is there any hope that these figures ever see the light of the day? The PL won the election on too many promises, including the one of enhancement in public accountability and transparency.
I shall defer my judgement and wait, yes, will wait for the figures.
Godot will appear sooner than your much wished-for figures, much sooner.
I’m sorry, I’m a bit lost here. Has the contract been signed or not? Has any contract been signed: with the Chinese or Electrogas? How can you sign a contract and then negotiate on the deal?
Am I missing something or is this just another mess-up by the government? I’m genuinely confused.
“… with Chinese extras they probably picked up from a restaurant or massage parlour, and paid a fee by the hour to put on a hard hat and pretend they were a delegazzjoni from Shanghai Electric.”
With this lot it wouldn’t surprise me.
Dawn in-nies lanqas kapaci jkollhom business bil-bigilla u l-hmara.
And they are good at it. They deliver.
How can something like a major government contract be signed while negotiations are still underway? Why all the equivocations and bazaar-talk?
At the moment the goverment thinks that it can get away with a murder.
If this had happened during a PN administration, the General Workers Union would have organised protests in the streets and strikes.
The future of Enemalta employees is at risk and not a word is heard from the GWU. And now there’s Air Malta too.
The PN in government is always at a disadvantage as it doesn’t only have the Opposition working against it but also the GWU. It seems now they’re hibernating.
PL’s motto must be “there are a lot of fools out there”, surely.
This is what I call ‘Hitting the ground sliding’.
Reading between the lines in what Con-rad said yesterday one immediately notices that the planned ‘power station project’ has now become the ;gas project’ The phrase ‘power station’ has now disappeared from Con-rad’s and the other confidence trickster’s terminology.
The power station project together with its promise has gone to the dogs, and we Maltese are being handed over the hot end of the stick, while the Chinese and Electrogas will be laughing all the way to their banks, and Joseph and Con-rad too of course. How can it be otherwise. We have our own intelligence and we need to respect our intelligence and everything that our intelligence concludes. Otherwise we would be morons; morons as in Joseph’s and Con-rad’s wish.
The game will end up as follows:
China will sign for their purchase of the 150MW BWSC plant. Electrogas will bring over their LNG supply and sell LNG to the Chinese to run their BWSC plant after converting it, as was originally planned by the PN administration, to run on gas.
And we, the voters, are all treated like morons by this PL-Chinese Communist-Gasan-Fenech cabal.
It is up to the Opposition in parliament to spell out the failure of government to honour, in the most blatant way, the promises made by the Labour Party now in government, before the election on the question of electric-power generating station(s).