On Keith Schembri’s counterclaims against the allegation of the kitchen cabinet, Edward Scicluna is right and Keith Schembri is lying. I’m not going to enter into a detailed rant on why Keith Schembri is lying but it is worth pointing out what is the role of the Ministry for Finance. The role of the Ministry of Finances is to finance the government, but it does not create the policies of the government. It manages the financing on a generic level and calibrates expenditure according to law and finance and management practices, but does not get involved in projects executed by national agencies.
The Ministry for Finance does not create energy policy but it should be able to list its financial priorities, conditions, and due diligence on national agencies and their projects. On a technical and executive level, the permanent secretary of the Ministry for Finance did insist on the takeover clause against the activation of the government guarantee, but Edward Scicluna never opposed it in the first place. So, it is true that Edward Scicluna never had anything to do with the Electrogas project, the gas purchases and the financing of the project but that is in fact the problem: Edward Scicluna as Minister for Finance should have been responsible enough to be actively involved and take an active interest despite the fact that Joseph Muscat didn’t want to involve him. In fact, the person who oversaw the finances and the structure of the project was Louis Grech and not Edward Scicluna and Louis Grech, until this day, still serves as a consultant to the Prime Minister.
Kitchen Cabinet indeed, and there’s also continuity too.
Louis Grech, now there is a memory worth investigating.