Enemalta chairman defends Delimara tender

The exchange of information between a Danish company and Enemalta before the issue of a tender for the new power plant "did not result in any influence or favour any bidder", corporation chairman Alex Tranter insisted yesterday.

Mr Tranter was responding to claims by Labour MP Evarist Bartolo that a man had acted as an intermediary between Enemalta and the Danish company BWSC before the call for tenders was issued for the supply of a 100MW turbine at Delimara in 2005.

BWSC was awarded the €200 million tender earlier this year.

However, when contacted Mr Tranter said it was "normal" for meetings to be held between Enemalta and existing and potential suppliers on a "regular basis".

Regular contacts between Enemalta and its suppliers were part of "any normal client-supplier relationship", he said, echoing Investments Minister Austin Gatt's statement that "there is no law, regulation or ethical rule that prohibits this". There was therefore no issue of him resigning.

Mr Bartolo claimed that the intermediary met with Enemalta officials and forwarded technical specifications to the company before the call for tenders was made public. He also alleged that the intermediary influenced the specifications to suit his client.

Mr Tranter insisted that what was important was that once an Enemalta tender was issued it did not give competitive advantage to a particular company.

Mr Tranter said the fact that the losing bidder, Israeli company Bateman, did not object to the tender conditions at the outset, even if it had every right to do so, showed that Bateman did not consider the tender conditions favourable to other bidders.

"This means the tender conditions were fair and acceptable," Mr Tranter said.

The chairman said it was up to the police to decide how to investigate or handle any report received.

"To date we are unaware of any such reports relating to this case being made to the police," he added.

Last Sunday, Labour newspaper Kullhadd claimed the intermediary was a businessman from San Gwann, and even named him.

When contacted by The Times, the alleged intermediary did not comment about the allegations.

Dr Gatt 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".

The minister also 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".

Dr Gatt did not say whether there would be an internal inquiry into the allegations.

ksansone@timesofmalta.com