John Dalli won’t speak. Who’s going to make him? It needn’t involve a lavatory bowl or electric prod.
Sargas is not accountable to the public and can claim confidentiality of commercial information. So we won’t bother asking them.
But John Dalli is accountable and obliged to answer. So here are the questions.
1. Sargas CEO Henrik Fleischer said on televison that you worked on a project for the company. Mr Dalli, what was this project, when did you work on it, how much were you paid, and were the fees paid into a Maltese bank account?
The date is necessary, because we need to know whether you were a cabinet minister at the time. If you were not a cabinet minister, then you were an MP, and so we need to assess whether the nature of the consultancy work was compatible with your role.
We hope, for your sake and ours, that you were not already an EU Commissioner when you worked for Sargas secretly.
2. Mr Fleischer said that his company was in negotiations with Gaddafi’s regime, for the dumping of our hypothetical power station waste there. Did you broker or lead those negotations, and if so, how much were you paid for this, and at the time were you a) a cabinet minister, b) a member of parliament, or c) an EU Commissioner?
3. Mr Fleischer said that the only ‘work’ you did for Sargas on the actual power station project in Malta was to secure an appointment with the prime minister, for which they were ‘very grateful’.
Were you paid for securing this appointment with the prime minister, and if so, how much? Were you a cabinet minister at the time, or a government backbencher? Or were you – heaven forfend – already an EU Commissioner?
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One should also ask Mr John Dalli if any payments received from his consultancy with Sargas were included in his income tax return.
And if he issued the relevant VAT invoices and receipts.
John Dalli is not accountable to the public – he is just a Cittadin Malti.
Can these questions be asked directly to Mr. Barroso or to an EU institution that acts as a watchdog (if it exists)?
Daphne, like Anglu Farrugia I am not tekniku so I’d like to make the following observation:
The selling point for Sargas is their technology is designed to capture the cardon dioxide emitted from the mixture of burned coal and biopaste and ship it to another country. To spare Malta 1 billion euros, why can’t Sargas device a technology to capture the emissions released today from the Marsa power plant. If they can be successful then the Marsa plant will no longer pollute the environment.
We would be compliant with the EU’s emissions regulations and we would save the country a hefty billion euros.
I wonder what John Dalli thinks about this?
Why does it have to be Sargas?
The Sargas project is still on the drawing board. Even if the pollution abating devices are compatible with the Marsa PS emissions, the remaining operating hours will expire long before a ‘solution’ can be found by Sargas.
Mrs Daphne Caruana Galizia’s questions are of more significance at this point and answers should be obtained by hook or by crook and with some urgency.
One more question: How does Joseph figure in all this – the relationship with John Dalli – John Dalli’s sudden popularity on One TV and Radio One? Was Joseph also promised some ‘consideration’ in return to throwing his weight (?) behind the project?
What a shame!! a person who until a few years ago had the esteem of the Maltese electorate has now felt the need to debase himself to this low extent – pity actually
He doesn’t think he’s debasing himself. He’s carrying on just as he did before. His consultancy work for Sargas was in 2007. Isn’t that what he said?
Maybe you should forward these questions to some chap in higher ranks at the EU. We will then see how accountable the EU Institutions are.
One other question:
When Dalli said he spoke to Lawrence Gonzi, in private, saying this proposal could win him the election, did he also tell him he would then go on ONE and publicly blackmail him?
Snake.
And did John Dalli tell Joseph Muscat also that his proposal could win Joseph the elections?
From what I heard of Joseph Muscat’s speech this morning , he avoided all mention of SARGAS by name , and instead referred to ”one of several” energy-proposals using gas.
What sort of confused plan is this? On Bondi+, Marlene Farrugia said that the party’s consideration of the Sargas plan was neither about gas nor about electricity generation. She spoke of the Carbon Dioxide capture, which is independent of what fuel is used for generation.
Joseph is talking about electricity generation.
Their plan is “Hawwadni ha nifhmek.”
They have no plan. It’s beyond them. They can’t even agree on an official position.