A Labour government would re-launch investigations into the controversial contract for the extension of the Delimara power station and offer protection to whistleblowers prepared to come forward with information that exposes corruption, party leader Joseph Muscat said yesterday.

Fielding questions during an interview broadcast on Labour’s radio, he said: “I would be willing to reopen the case and protect anyone willing to disclose information on individuals and politicians who fattened their wallets illegally... God forbid the day ever comes when I am Prime Minister and allow a mess like this.”

The €210 million contract, awarded to Danish company BWSC, has been a source of a never-ending controversy.

The choice of BWSC, which will supply eight diesel engines, was criticised severely on the basis that its technology is untested and uses polluting heavy fuel oil.

A report by the Auditor General had flagged a number of shortcomings in the way the contract was awarded.

This included the choice of German company Lahmeyer International as an independent consultant to the contract adjudication committee, chaired by David Spiteri Gingell, because it was blacklisted by the World Bank for corruption.

Mr Spiteri Gingell had admitted making a mistake in not vetting the firm’s track record, saying he had wrongly assumed that, once the government had already worked with Lahmeyer, it had been vetted beforehand.

The issue came to the fore again recently when The Sunday Times revealed the European Commission had sent a letter to the government last June suggesting that Malta may have breached EU rules in the adjudication of the contract.

The Commission said that changing the environmental laws lowering the threshold of emissions that could be emitted by a power station, just before the tender was adjudicated, favoured diesel bidders BWSC.

Yesterday, Dr Muscat highlighted this, saying that BWSC only became eligible to win the contract because of the change in emission laws.

“This question remains unanswered: Why did the company spend hundreds of thousands of euro on the bid it knew it would not be awarded because of the emission laws at the time. Did it know the law was going to be changed?” he asked.

The renewed interest in the case comes after it was revealed that Mr Spiteri Gingell started working as a consultant to BWSC’s local contractor, Vassallo Builders, after the Delimara contract was awarded.

The PL said the news was “shocking”, pointing out that Mr Spiteri Gingell was one of the people who defended the changes to the law that allowed BWSC into the race for the contract, on the basis that this was required by the EU.

In the letter sent by the Commission to the government in June it was made clear that there were no such EU exigencies, the Labour party pointed out.

Mr Spiteri Gingell could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Dr Muscat said that people had started to perceive corruption as a form of tax. The government was turning a blind eye to the Delimara controversy which could end with Malta facing EU fines that would be ultimately paid by taxpayers.

“Such a situation is unacceptable... The Nationalist Party kicked out a (Sta Venera) mayor for accepting €80 (in donations from a teacher who used the council premises to give private lessons) but no one (from the government) said a word over this €200 million contract,” he said.

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