Energy Minister Miriam Dalli has spent €152,000 of taxpayers’ funds in what so far appears to be a well-designed pre-electoral gimmick.

Just two days before the last elections, Dalli organised a lavish press conference at a site known as ‘Is-Siċċa’ in Birżebbuġa to announce a “major project” for the area that “would change the lives” of her constituents.

Although it was ceremoniously announced at the end of last March, there is nothing to show for it apart from video footage of a press conference and the simplest of plans.

According to the minister, who was at the time co-opted to parliament by Prime Minister Robert Abela, €40 million were going to be invested so an area of derelict fuel tanks in Qajjenza would be turned into an “innovation hub” providing state-of-the-art jobs and entertainment facilities for those living in Birżebbuġa and neighbouring areas.

An investigation by The Shift showed that no plans had been submitted for Dalli’s project. And the international design and architecture firm Pininfarina, quoted by Dalli as some kind of investor, told The Shift it had no intention of forking out a single euro.

While Minister Dalli refused to give any replies to questions on the project’s potential investors, where the €40 million being mentioned would come from, and when the project was expected to start, Pininfarina, from their offices in Turin, told The Shift that they were just government clients and have no direct interest in the project.

Contrary to the impression Dalli tried to give, Pininfarina made it clear that they were just Dalli’s ministry’s clients who had been engaged to prepare a desktop design for the area.

Further investigations by The Shift show that so far, some €152,000 has been spent by Dalli, through direct orders, on an event to boost her electoral chances and beat competition from rival Labour candidates in the fifth district.

Through eight different invoices, Dalli’s ministry paid Pininfarina a total of €140,000 for a ‘desktop’ design – the Italian designers didn’t even need to go into detail to produce a glitzy design the minister could use to impress her constituents. If the project eventually moves on from this embryonic stage, fresh and elaborate designs must be produced.

Invoices seen by The Shift show that the costs were all paid by Petromal Ltd, a government company that falls under Minister Dalli’s responsibility and was only used as a vehicle by the minister to finance the cost of plans for ‘Is-Siċċa’.

Dalli’s office used other direct orders to produce her impressive press conference on the site of the former Oil Tanking company to announce her project.

The costs included €8,437 to TEC Ltd – the company used by Labour and various candidates before the last elections for their campaigns, €2,761 to Ders Wedding Films – a company that normally provides wedding videos – to produce promotional videos for Dalli, and €1,457 so Dalli could stream her press conference live on social media.

All these costs were incurred to boost Dalli’s electoral chances, but they were all paid from state coffers.