Updated: Uproar in Parliament after MP's 'lapsus' in midnight vote - Opposition walks out

Last updated Friday 1.44 a.m.

A dramatic sitting of the House of Representatives ended at 1.30 this morning after uproar which saw the Opposition walk out of the Chamber.

The walk-out was triggered when Parliamentary Secretary Mario Galea made a mistake during voting on an Opposition motion which condemned the government over the way the contract for the power station extension was granted. Mr Galea was heard to mistakenly say 'yes' (in favour of the motion).

Deputy Prime Minister Tonio Borg amid uproar said that Labour MP Justyne Caruana also appeared to have made a mistake and had said 'no'. Labour MPs shouting across the floor, denied Dr Borg's claim.

As the sitting was suspended for the Speaker to hear the recording, Opposition MPs insisted they had won the vote, and walked out of the Chamber.

When the sitting resumed, the Speaker said the recording was not clear and in terms of standing orders, since doubts still existed, he was calling a re-vote.

The opposition motion was then defeated, with 35 government votes against. The Opposition MPs were not present.

In comments after the vote, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi told timesofmalta.com that Parliamentary Secretary Mario Galea had made a genuine mistake and it appeared that so too had Justyne Caruana.

"That the Opposition is insisting it won a vote because of somebody's genuine mistake is ridiculous and unheard of," Dr Gonzi said.

He said the Speaker's ruling was correct, once the recording had not removed the doubts, and his decision to order a re-vote was the proper democratic exercise.

"Tonight's episode shows that the Opposition is not prepared to play the democratic game," Dr Gonzi said.

Opposition leader Joseph Muscat said what had happened in the House was “shameful for democracy” and showed yet again that Malta had an unstable government.

He said that as in the BWSC case, the government wanted to change the rules until it got the result which suited it.

MUSCAT PROTESTS OVER MP'S 'CONFLICT OF INTEREST'

The vote had been delayed to after midnight after Dr Muscat raised a point of order at 9 p.m. and requested a ruling from the Speaker on whether Nationalist MP Charlo' Bonnici could vote, in view of a conflict of interest.

He pointed out that both Standing Orders and the Code of Ethics said that in circumstances where they had a direct pecuniary interest, MPs should declare such interest and may not vote. The same was said in Erskine May, the 'bible' of parliamentary procedure.

Dr Muscat said Mr Bonnici was HR Manager at Care Malta Ltd. His direct superior was the CEO, Alex Tranter, who was also chairman of Enemalta. Furthermore, Care Malta was owned by Zaren Vassallo, and Vassallo Builders were the civil works contractors of BWSC for the building of the power station extension.

Intervening, Foreign Minister Tonio Borg said that he did not see any direct, or even indirect pecuniary interest with the subject matter of the motion.

The sitting was suspended while the Speaker, Michael Frendo, who was presiding only the fifth sitting since his appointment, considered his ruling.

In his ruling, given three hours later at 12.08 a.m. the Speaker said he had seen Mr Bonnici's declaration of assets and confirmed that he was employed by Care Malta Ltd.

However Care Malta was not mentioned in the report by the Auditor Gneral on the power station extension contract and the Chair therefore felt that Mr Bonnici did not have a direct pecuniary interest and should be allowed to vote.

WINDING UP SPEECH

During his winding up speech during the debate, Dr Muscat said he could not see how any MP who truly represented the people could vote against the opposition motion, which condemned the government over the way the power station extension contract was awarded..

He said that while the government had claimed that it stopped work on the power station extension until the auditor's inquiry was completed, it had actually signed the contract with BWSC on the same day that the inquiry started, and it had presented the project to Mepa, which issued an outline development permit.

The government, he said, had opted for technology which existed before, but was actually a prototype because its units had never been combined like they would be in Malta.

While the auditor found no hard evidence of corruption in the contract, he complained of lack of cooperation from a number of persons who claimed to have forgotten what had taken place, particularly BWSC representative Joseph Mizzi.

Clearly, Mr Mizzi had an early copy of the specifications for the power station extension, but the auditor was unable to establish the source of the leak at Enemalta.

The auditor went so far as to declare he did not believe all those who spoke before him, including some Enemalta officials.

It was shameful, Dr Muscat said, that the so-called experts had not looked up BWSC and its reputation when considering the tender. Neither had they done so for independent consultant company Lehmeyer, which was even blacklisted by the World Bank and which once also had Mr Mizzi as its local representative. The auditor found that the Lehmeyer comments were instrumental in the selection of the bidder.

Dr Muscat recalled that as far back as 2006 Dr Gatt has said that a gas operated power station was the best way forward, yet the government had strangely then opted for a power station that operated on heavy fuel oil.

The urgency for the installation of an extension of the power station was only the result of the government's failure to act earlier, Dr Muscat said.

It was telling that the auditor had said that the tendering process should have been stopped once the emissions thresholds were changed in 2008. The change had had a direct impact on the tendering process, the auditor had said. The EU itself was conducting an inquiry in this regard.

The leader of the opposition said the government had not denied that the power station would produce 31 tons of flyash every day. And the hazardous nature was confirmed by Finance Minister Tonio Fenech himself, who said that shipment would be in specially sealed containers. And it had been revealed that the government did not yet have a waste disposal contract.

Dr Muscat said the auditor had confirmed that a gas plant would have been the cleanest technology and would have occupied the smallest footprint at Delimara.

Indeed, the government appeared to accept that the chosen plant was not the best for the environment, but it was claiming that it was most cost-effective. But this was not true.

The tender was based on a formula which gave 75 percent weighting to finances and just 25 per cent to other areas such as technology and the environment. Enemalta had claimed that the Contracts Department set that formula, yet that department, somehow, did not intervene in such contracts.

This whole funding issue was flawed, including the claim that the maintenance agreement would cost €18 million. The auditor had not found a direct link between the main contract and the proposed maintenance contract and the auditor said there could actually be a discrepancy of 40%.

The government, Dr Muscat said, could surely have found the money to build a power station which did not pose a hazard to the people's health, in the same way as it found the money for a roofless theatre, a new parliament, and loans to Greece.

It was humiliating, Dr Muscat said, that the government had to request BWSC permission to publish the contract and that BWSC only agreed to the publication of parts of the contract and only one copy could be produced.

The opposition, he said, was scanning the contract and would hand out copies to the press. BSC could try suing it, if it wished.

Concluding, Dr Muscat said the auditor's report had proved the claims made by the Labour Party and he therefore could not see how any MP who represented the people could vote against the motion.