BWSC advert campaign cost taxpayers €40,000

The government’s media counter offensive of the past weeks on the contentious Delimara power station extension has cost taxpayers more than €40,000, according to figures supplied by the Finance Ministry.

The full-page newspaper adverts, titled The Truth Prevails, quoted excerpts from the question and answer sessions involving the Auditor General during two meetings of the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee.

The Finance Ministry has defended its advertising campaign, which it said was intended “to inform the general public about the main conclusions” of the PAC hearings and the Auditor General’s report about the BWSC contract.

The four letters representing the name of the Danish company that won the power station contract have been etched in the popular psyche after two years of controversy.

The total cost of the campaign was quoted at €40,611, allocated to various newspapers. According to a ministry spokesman, 44 per cent of the amount was spent on adverts in The Times and The Sunday Times, 26 per cent in The Malta Independent and The Malta Independent on Sunday, 20 per cent in the Nationalist Party newspapers In-Nazzjon and Il-Mument, six per cent in Malta Today and four per cent in l-Orizzont, the General Workers Union daily that ran a whole series of stories about the contract last year.

Only recently, columnist Lino Spiteri described the adverts as a “partisan” attempt to use public funds “to create a smokescreen”.

“Not only are they manifestly misusing public money to buy advertising space for partisan purposes – they are protesting too much,” Mr Spiteri wrote in his opinion column in The Times.

He said Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and the minister previously responsible for Enemalta, Austin Gatt, were making it obvious they were “politically damaged by the BWSC saga”.

However, when asked the reason for the advertising campaign the Finance Ministry spokesman repeated what was published in the adverts, adding that contrary to the Opposition’s allegations, the Auditor General concluded he found no corruption in the contract award to BWSC.

“Through the hearings at the PAC, it was emphasised that the selection process was examined in 10 separate stages. It was analysed in three reports and each report was unanimously approved by three different committees. In all, the selection process was scrutinised by 25 people. No corruption was found,” the spokesman said.

Highlighting other aspects of the PAC meetings, the spokesman quo­ted the Auditor General saying that BWSC’s offer was €296 million less than that of rival bidders Bateman.

He also referred to the allegations that emission levels were changed to favour BWSC, insisting that technical experts appointed by the Auditor General concluded that Enemalta based the new limits on reliable documents based on German standards.

The advertising campaign was launched after the Auditor General appeared in front of the PAC and the government finally caved in to the Opposition’s insistence on hearing key witnesses – who had failed to cooperate with the auditor’s investigation – appear before the committee.

However, the government has gone in overdrive mode indicating its intention to call some 150 witnesses in what Mr Spiteri has described an attempt “to ridicule” the PAC.

ksansone@timesofmalta.com