The General Workers' Union has evidence to prove the Fairmount ship conversion contracts cost the country €80 million and not the €36 million being cited, general secretary Tony Zarb said yesterday.
Mr Zarb said Pricewaterhouse-Coopers had not calculated everything when it estimated the total cost. Pressed for an example, Mr Zarb told The Sunday Times the auditing firm had not taken into account the expenses related to management fees.
The auditing company was appointed by the government to investigate the controversial loss-making projects.
Mr Zarb said the union was prepared to divulge details unless the government agreed to its request for an "independent and public" inquiry.
Asked whether this meant that PricewaterhouseCoopers was not independent, Mr Zarb said the auditing firm had not approached the union for information which could shed more light on what many were calling a scandal.
Mr Zarb said people had the right to know who was responsible for the failure and why action had not yet been taken.
The government said last year that the Fairmount projects, which involved work on two semi-submersible barges - the Fjel and the Fjord - were the main reason for the reversal of the progress Malta Shipyards had been seeing since restructuring in 2003.
Mr Zarb said Malta Shipyards had spent millions on machinery and on material for this contract. Not a single cent would be recovered, however. He asked how Malta Shipyards' marketing manager, Graham Crouser, had been appointed and why he was allowed to leave before his contract expired.
The PricewaterhouseCoopers report concluded that the contracts were a loss-making venture before they even started, adding that the contracts for the two conversion jobs were worded in a way that gave the client the "upper hand" in most situations.
Meanwhile, addressing a seminar on the cost of living organised by leftwing lobby group Żminijietna yesterday, Mr Zarb called for a change in the mechanism used to calculate the Cost of Living Allowance (COLA).
He said the main reason the cost of living in Malta continued to increase, despite the recession, were the water and electricity tariffs.
Addressing the same seminar, Union Ħaddiema Magħqudin general secretary Gejtu Vella also said a discussion should take place on the COLA mechanism.
He lashed out at employers for saying there would be job losses if the requested adjustment of €7 a week was granted.