Labour willing to meet Danish firm

Labour would meet the power station contract winner BWSC, against whom it has been levelling allegations of corruption, on condition that whatever is said does not remain confidential, Labour leader Joseph Muscat said yesterday.

Although he is willing to meet representatives of the Danish company that won the tender to supply new equipment for the Delimara power station today, Dr Muscat said he expected them to also hold a press conference and find time to meet the media to answer questions on the award of the contract.

"That is what people who have nothing to hide do and I expect an answer from them (BWSC) about this," he said during a 30-minute speech dedicated almost exclusively to the power station tender.

He asked whether it was the Danish company that had suggested a meeting with the PL, or "some consultant".

The controversy surrounding the award of the tender to the Danish company took another turn last week when the PL flagged claims of corruption that had been revealed by Danish media.

Denmark's daily business newspaper Borsen alleged internal company documents showed that BWSC handed millions of euro to win contracts in countries like the Philippines, Sri Lanka and the Bahamas.

If true, the trend reinforces Labour's claims that the company bribed its way into winning the Delimara contract.

BWSC has denied the bribery claims, saying that an investigation by Danish police had failed to find any evidence in support of the allegations. Maltatoday yesterday noted that the police could not take action because when the alleged case happened in 1999, the law did not allow them to prosecute crimes committed by Danish companies outside Denmark.

The same newspaper also claimed that Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt had been aware of the reports of alleged bribery since last month. The issue had been raised during a parliamentary group meeting on October 31, Dr Muscat said yesterday.

"Why didn't the Prime Minister or Austin Gatt contact the Danish company on that day? Or had there been a contact which we do not know about?" Dr Muscat asked without elaborating.

The Labour party revealed the allegations of the Danish newspaper on Friday, following a meeting it had with the Auditor General. Soon after that, Dr Gatt wrote to BWSC chief executive Soren Barkholt asking for an immediate explanation.

The auditor is already investigating the award of the Delimara contract following Labour's original allegations and he is expected to meet BWSC representatives today.

Reiterating what he said during a press conference on Friday, Dr Muscat said BWSC and its Japanese mother company, Mitsui, appeared to have employed a consistent strategy to win contracts - finding a person who received commission and who would then try and exert influence on politicians and those who managed corporations. He said the middleman in Malta's case received €4 million in commission, which was a corruption tax on Maltese people.

The Infrastructure Ministry yesterday said no minister was responsible for the acquisition of the new power station let alone responsible for deciding who it was bought from.

It said the process conformed with Maltese law and none of the shortlisted bidders had appealed the decision.

In a separate statement, the PN said Dr Muscat was acting like a journalist with a partisan political station. The PN criticised the Labour leader for not mentioning the €75,000 that government was ordered to pay in compensation for a Sta Venera property that had been requisitioned in 1973 and later turned into a Labour club.