PM insists power station choice was 'right one' for the country

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said today that the report by the Auditor-General on the power station extension contract confirmed that the government had made the right choice for the country.

Speaking in Parliament, Dr Gonzi said the Opposition over the past months had been making the same allegations and claims previously made by Bateman, the bidder which came last in the tendering process.

The auditor in his report said he had 'meticulously' analysed all the Bateman claims, and found that the only claim that could be justified, was that the company had not been informed in writing that its bid had placed last.

Dr Gonzi said the government remained committed to switching to a gas-firing operation when that was possible and could be afforded. The government would continue to work for a better environment for the people, but clearly, the Opposition's claims about this contract did not hold water.

In his speech, Dr Gonzi said he was fascinated at how opposition speakers in the debate hardly made any reference to the auditor's findings, which were supposed to be the subject of this debate.

The Labour MPs were also ignoring the urgent need Malta had to ensure it had energy security, while also ensuring that the costs of electricity were reasonable, and the environment was safeguarded.

The auditor himself had said that the chosen power station had the best technology resulting in the lowest cost of operation while meeting legislative and environment requirements.

The Prime Minister said he would continue to defend anybody's right to call for investigations whenever wrongdoing was suspected, but the public institutions should then be allowed to do their work and their outcome should be respected. In contrast, the Labour MPs, particularly Evarist Bartolo, had acted like they were the accusers, investigators, judge and jury.

The auditor had found neither corruption, nor irregularities. The auditor had engaged his own technical and legal experts to support his investigations.

The auditor had investigated and discounted Bateman's claims one by one. He had said, for example, that it was not true that the legislative changes of January 2008 were made to create unfair competition. Such amendments were made to make local legislation identical to EU directives. Enemalta had been trying to have the position corrected ever since 2005.

The auditor's technical adviser had reported that said the use of diesel instead of heavy fuel would have meant a 'higher cost' for consumer, and not a lower cost as Bateman and the Labour Party claimed.

Again, contrary to Bateman's claims, the auditor found that the costings exercise made by the government in the processing of the tenders included all aspects - including the disposal of the flyash.

It had been demonstrated that Bateman's claim that the footprint space for the BWSC machinery would jeopardize the eventual third phase of the power station expansion was not true.

The auditor also confirmed that the BWSC plant complied with the requirements of a dual fuel operation.

The auditor had concluded that however it was worked, the financial formula favoured BWSC.

In his conclusion the auditor said the Bateman claims (the same claims made by the PL) were 'meticulously analysed' and the only claim that was justified was that the company was not informed in writing by the Contracts Committee than it had ranked last in the tendering procedure.

The audit report clearly showed that the right choice had been made for the country, Dr Gonzi said.

BWSC BOUND BY EMISSIONS TARGETS

Finance Minister Tonio Fenech said the contract with BWSC was such that should there be non-compliance with the established emission limits of major pollutants, "Enemalta reserves the right to reject the plant outright".

Furthermore, he said, should the power station be close to reaching the maximum emission levels, it could easily be switched to diesel.

Emissions monitoring, he promised, would be ongoing and available in real time on the internet.

Mr Fenech rejected claims that the Maltese people would be used as guinea pigs by the BWSC. The auditor had said the machinery was 'tried and tested'. What was new was the combination of all the units together. But the core systems were already in use in diesel engines.

The minister said it was not true that the power station extension would produce enough toxic waste to fill 15 containers per week as Labour has claimed. Nor would such waste be shipped in ordinary containers, but sealed and safe containers.

On the five-year maintenance agreement, Mr Fenech said this period was established by Enemalta because that time was deemed enough for its own engineers to be able to take over the operation, thus saving money.

It was not true that this plant would need to be replaced after seven years, and it was meant to last for 30 years, Mr Fenech said.