Engineer reiterates corruption claim in superyachts privatisation process

A former bidder in the privatisation of the superyacht facility of Malta Shipyards today stood by his allegations of irregularities in the tendering process.

Paul Cardona, a marine engineer, filed a reply to a protest filed earlier this month by Mimcol CEO Mario Mizzi.

Mr Cardona said he could not understand how Mr Mizzi could claim that he was never told about the corruption allegations before May 2010, when Finance Minister Tonio Fenech himself had declared that he summoned the members of the Privatisation Unit's negotiating team to tell them about the allegation of irregularities.

Mr Cardona said he could confirm that at a meeting called by Mr Mizzi on a different subject, Mr Mizzi told him that "if you take care of me, I am in a position to help you."

Those words, Mr Cardona said, were uttered in the context that Mr Mizzi was a member of the Evaluation Committee of the Privatisation Unit..

Mr Cardona said he immediately told the other members of his consortium and reported to Leonard Callus, a senior officer in the Office of the Prime Minister, on September 29. Mr Callus then informed Finance Minister Fenech who, instead of going to the police informed the Privatisation Unit, which included Mr Mizzi.

As to the claim that the evaluation committee found that none of the bids were satisfactory, leading to the calling off of the privatisation process, Mr Cardona said that had that been true, the Privatisation Unit could have requested the bidders to submit fresh bids as it had done in the case of Malta Shipyards.

Furthermore, one could see that while the winning Palumbo bid for Malta Shipyards was of €420 per square metre and that of MIYY Consortium was €326 per square metre for the Manoel Island Yacht Yard, his consortium, SYC Ltd, had offered €712 per square metre for the superyacht facility and demonstrated its technical capabilities.

There was no reason therefore, for its bid to be found neither acceptable not satisfactory.

Mr Cardona noted that he had reported his claims to Mr Callus at the OPM on September 29, which was before the Privatisation Unit made its recommendations to the government. Therefore, Mr Mizzi's claim that he had alleged corruption because his bid was turned down did not hold water.

He called on Mr Mizzi to admit his mistakes and held him responsible for damages.