Malta’s energy ministry and the departments that fall under its remit issued close to €100 million in direct orders within three years, Energy Minister Michael Farrugia has revealed.

Following a parliamentary question from Opposition MP Claudette Buttigieg, Farrugia revealed that Enemalta was by far the biggest issuer, awarding around €72 million on just over 510 direct orders since the start of 2017.

The names of the companies and what the direct orders were used for was not revealed.

Usually, any payment over €10,000 should be issued through a tendering process. However, there are rules for the Minister responsible to bypass the procedure, although this should not exceed a €135,000 limit.

The issue has been raised before, with Ministries often spending millions in direct orders. In 2018, the Ministry on its own awarded just over €1.3 million in direct orders.

It should be noted that Farrugia only assumed the role in January 2020, taking over from Joe Mizzi following Prime Minister Robert Abela’s reshuffle.

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