Minister will not ask police to probe allegations

Contacts between government entities and potential suppliers are an "everyday occurance" and there was no law, regulation or ethical rule that excluded this, according to Investments Minister Austin Gatt.

Dr Gatt was reacting to allegations made by Labour MP Evarist Bartolo that a man had acted as an intermediary between Enemalta and the Danish company BWSC even before the call for tenders for the new power plant at Delimara was issued in 2005.

The company was earlier this year awarded the €200 million contract to supply a new 100MW turbine, which will operate on heavy fuel.

Mr Bartolo claimed that the intermediary met with some Enemalta officials and forwarded technical specifications to the company before the call for tenders was made public. More seriously, he alleged that the intermediary even influenced the specifications to suit his client.

Labour newspaper KullHadd claimed that the intermediary was a businessman from San Gwann, even naming him.

When contacted, the alleged intermediary did not comment about the allegations made against him.

The minister said he did not know the man and had only heard his name in connection with the power station tender "two weeks ago". He insisted he had never spoken to "any" person by that name in connection with the tender "before it was opened, while it was open or since it closed".

Dr Gatt said it was not up to him to ask the police to investigate the "crimes" alleged by Mr Bartolo, insisting the prosecution of criminal offences was the prerogative of the "autonomous institutions" responsible for such matters, which "act independently of the wishes of a minister".

He would not say whether he would be demanding an internal investigation into the allegations.

Questions sent to the police remained unanswered at the time of writing.

"If Evarist Bartolo knows more than he has written he should inform the police and if he does not, then it is up to the police to decide what to do with what he has written, one way or the other," Dr Gatt said.

The minister added that information exchanged between suppliers and public entities was a "useful way for the entity to keep in contact with technological developments" and for suppliers to "prepare themselves for tender processes".

He said the government information technology agency, Mita, published what tenders it intended to issue six months in advance.

"Potential suppliers will send in queries to get as much information as possible. That is the way the real world functions. The important thing is that, once issued, the tender does not give advantage to any particular company," Dr Gatt said.

The minister insisted that the company that lost the Enemalta tender, Israeli concern Bateman, never objected to the conditions in the tender as it had every right to do. This meant Bateman never considered the tender to be written to favour rival bidder BWSC, he added.

Bateman's offer was for a turbine operated by natural gas, which would have been a cleaner alternative to the heavy fuel plant.

"Considering that Bateman was ranked first as far as the technical part was concerned shows that any contacts between Enemalta and potential suppliers resulted in Bateman winning the technical part of the tender. So much for the supposed allegations," Dr Gatt remarked.

Enemalta chairman Alex Tranter did not answer questions on the matter.

ksansone@timesofmalta.com