Innuendos and allegations

The Leader of the Opposition, Alfred Sant, made a speech last Sunday morning wherein he alluded to my performance as chairman of the Water Services Corporation (WSC).

He said he had heard that I was friendly with two construction companies in particular and said that these had taken the lion's share of contracts awarded by the WSC. I write to provide readers with hard facts in response to the allusions, suggestions and hearsay that are Dr Sant's stock-in-trade.

In 1996, the year I left Parliament and politics, I resumed my practice. As an architect, one deals constantly with construction companies and occasionally may take a participation in a building development which they are constructing. I have done this too on a number of occasions, even after being appointed WSC chairman since this is a part-time and non-executive role. In February 2002, a company I own, together with three other companies, invested in a piece of land for the development of a number of residential units.

Subsequently, all four companies became shareholders in a second company, set up to do further development projects. One of those four companies is a Polidano Group company, which group also provides services to the WSC, but - and this is the part Dr Sant conveniently forgot to say - only when the price quoted for those services is the lowest acceptable offer as determined by the appropriate selection board. Not because, as Dr Sant mused, the contractor knew the architect.

The works for the Mellieha sewage treatment plant were awarded to the IBI-Polidano consortium on November 19, 2004 after invitations for tenders were issued to a number of Italian companies, including IBI, on May 30, 2004. The process for the award of the tender was transparent and I was not involved in it. The Selection Board's conclusion was reached without any input from myself, as the board members can attest.

Last Sunday, Dr Sant alleged that Polidano Bros have been awarded the majority of WSC contracts. In fact, from the year 2000 to date the value of contracts awarded by WSC to the Polidano Group (excluding the Mellieha sewage treatment plant being paid by Italian protocol funds) was less than three per cent of the total value of WSC contracts.

I have no connection with the Maltese contractor in the consortium awarded the contract for the Gozo sewage treatment plant.

This is the truth, backed by facts and my willingness to disclose them. The rest is merely tar dripping from Dr Sant's brush.