BREAKING/Trouble brews at Electrogas power station

Sources who are owed large sums of money by Electrogas Malta Ltd, the owners and operators of the power station built in collusion with Joseph Muscat, Keith Schembri, Konrad Mizzi and the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (which is a shareholder), have told this website that the company is not paying creditors or even salaries to employees, and that “the last payment run was on 28th March”.

Questioned further, the sources said: “Despite the fuss and fanfare for the official opening last month, they are still not producing energy. They are still at testing stage, and at most produce less than 10% of capability. Testing is scheduled to carry on until the end of September – if they manage to find finance to survive.”

The sources continued that because the Electrogas power station is now officially operational, even though it is not actually operating, Enemalta Corporation, is giving Electrogas a “weekly programme of supply that they can’t deliver yet because of technical problems”. It is this which has caused the serious liquidity problem for Electrogas: failure to deliver to Enemalta means racking up fines and penalties.

Though the government created the problem by forcing a gravely premature official opening, it cannot sort out the consequent problem of Enemalta Corporation now demanding delivery on a weekly programme.

Enemalta is controlled by Shanghai Power Electric after the government sold a large chunk to the Chinese state in a secret deal negotiated by Konrad Mizzi and Cheng Chen, both of whom were discovered last year – after the deal was struck – to have had secret offshore companies, with their ownership hidden by nominees, set up for them in Panama and the British Virgin Islands.

“The government’s forcing of an early opening as a prelude to announcing the general election has not helped the situation at all,” the sources told this website.