Konrad Mizzi’s ‘consultant’ David Galea returns to Enemalta

Disgraced former Minister Konrad Mizzi’s right-hand man, who was implicated in most of the controversial multi-million-euro deals during Joseph Muscat’s Labour administration, is back on Enemalta’s consultants’ list after a short interval in the shadows, The Shift has learned.

Through his one-man consultancy firm Beat Ltd, David Galea has been entrusted by the state energy provider to draw up a new negotiating position for the company over a so-called ‘Conversion Term Agreement’ originally signed with Electrogas.

Industry sources told The Shift that this agreement, entered into by Konrad Mizzi during the original negotiations on the new gas-fired power plant, stipulated the terms which would enter into force in the eventuality that a gas pipeline between Malta and Sicily is installed and the LNG storage tanker moored permanently in Delimara is no longer necessary.

According to the original agreement, drafted by the same Galea, the government was targeting this conversion to happen sometime in 2026. 

However, sources said that since Minister Miriam Dalli has taken over the energy portfolio, the timeline has changed, and David Galea was called in to try to draw up a new plan for the state company.

David Galea,  who was involved in the VGH hospitals concession as well as the sale of the ITS prime site in St Julian’s, was paid over €1.5 million in consultancies during the time Konrad Mizzi was a member of cabinet.

While testifying to the public accounts committee, Konrad Mizzi had stated that he did not know how he had befriended him – a childhood friend from Paola – Galea was hired on a €600 a day consultancy contract by Enemalta, just a week after Mizzi became minister.

The €12,000 a month contract, which continued for years, was signed by Louis Giordimaina, at the time Enemalta chairman, on the instructions of Konrad Mizzi.

Enemata has recently had a change of leadership, however, there seems to have been no change in the way the company operates.

The company is in financial dire straits, depending on monthly government subventions to keep afloat, but it appears Miriam Dalli’s appointment of a new CEO, Jonathan Cardona, hasn’t altered anything in the company’s multi-million-euro procurement procedures.

According to the latest details published in the government gazette, in the last six months of 2021, Enemata made most of its procurements through direct orders instead of the proper tendering system.

While the company issued 26 tenders between July and December 2021, it allocated a staggering 137 direct orders with a total value of €4 million.

One single company, Electrical Supplies & Services – which supplies Enemalta with cables – was given 24 separate direct orders in six months.

Other beneficiaries include law firm Camilleri Preziosi, Alberta Fire & Security, Engineering Consulting Solutions Ltd, whose shareholder is a company registered in the Isle of Man and lawyer Lucio Sciriha, paid €6,250 for ‘legal consultancy’ every two months.