More than meets the technical eye

Finance Minister Tonio Fenech looked awkward on television last Monday during the power station extension debate. The minister appeared uncomfortable and embarrassed. He was landed the task of defending the indefensible committed under the aegis of another minister. The Prime Minister, obviously aware of what was to come, thought ahead on this and in his latest Cabinet minuscule moves - prompted by John Dalli's exit - took Enemalta away from Austin Gatt and passed on the poisoned turbine to Mr Fenech. Now, the latter is having to carry the can after the publication of the damning Auditor General's report on the power station extension tender and contract award.

The source of Minister Fenech's uneasiness last Monday - apart from the Auditor General's report - was obviously a vindicated Evarist Bartolo by his side. The latter has made it his mission - in the name of Maltese citizens - to expose the obscure and irregular way the contract for the extension of the Delimara power station was awarded. As is his wont, Mr Bartolo did a thorough job.

The easiest bit maybe was to find out that the company which evaluated the tender technically, Lahmeyer International, is on the World Bank's black list for corruption. LI has built three power stations in Iraq with BWSC, the company that was awarded the (Delimara) tender on the basis of the technical evaluation of LI. Both these companies have had Joseph Mizzi as their exclusive local agent. All this is more than enough to show what a joke this government has become. But the Prime Minister and his Cabinet expect us not to even raise one eyebrow... let alone two.

Minister Gatt, responsible for Enemalta at the time, had said he was sure that the Auditor's investigation would show that nothing is wrong with the power station tender and contract. Now that the Auditor's report is out, and there is a lot that is wrong, he is taking a backseat while his Cabinet colleague is being made to answer to what is evidently - not unlike the Fairmount contract before it - an expensive sham from beginning to end.

What serious and responsible citizen would not be worried, for instance, by this hodgepodge of the technical with the political: Mizzi had contacted Anders Langhorn, to inform him that "we need to tap another source higher up in the political hierarchy..." and asked him to "prepare a technical brief to convince Enemalta what power generating plant to go for". Mizzi told BWSC that he, "with his excellent access to people high up in politics and at Enemalta, would secure them the contract". How? On technical or political merits?

Who wouldn't look suspiciously at this: The insurance company states that the proposed and eventually opted for "medium speed engines are over-represented in the claims files" and "the average claims cost per year is five times as high for a medium speed engine than for a low speed engine... their rate of degradation is approximately one per cent a year, which is considered higher than others and their efficiency is 48 per cent, lower than others... Their reliability is low, considering that they have two to four per cent unscheduled outage, which means that their use results in more power failures and cuts than others. Their availability is only 7,600 to 8,100 hours a year, which is shorter than that of other plants. Their technical design leads to more stress on the engines... their spare parts consumption is considered at least $4 per megawatt per hour, which is double that for other plants..."

Despite all these flaws - untrustworthiness, lower efficiency, costlier to maintain and a shorter life span - the government and Enemalta chose these medium speed diesel engines operating on heavy fuel oil for the new extension of the Delimara power station.

What is most incredible though is that, in the tender evaluation procedures applied by Enemalta to award the tender to BWSC, none of the drawbacks highlighted by this company about the medium speed diesel engines were taken into consideration. On the contrary, the government and Enemalta went ahead to award the contract to BWSC with a plant that BWSC itself knows is not the best choice for Malta.

Technical facts aside, an old hand at the Nationalist Party political game told me not to waste too much time trying to fathom the contradictions. There is much more than meets the eye and it's not about the technology to be used. He went on to say that there is what's called the JS list and it has to do with contractors who are awarded government tenders and with party-funding adding that this is more about political interests than technical concerns.

On Thursday, the foregoing will be debated in Parliament. But we will never know the whole truth, what with the bouts of amnesia suffered by chief witnesses and the government's zeal to cover up... It will be interesting though to see whether the government MPs - who have already heavily criticised the technical aspect - will hold their own. Again, even here, the Prime Minister had the political foresight to give the detractors a biscuit out of the national cookie jar while we footed the bill: anything not to jeopardise that half-seat majority.

Dr Dalli is shadow minister for the public service and government investment.