Government, opposition list possible witnesses

The opposition yesterday included former ministers John Dalli and Jesmond Mugliett, former PN General Secretary Joe Saliba and backbencher Michael Fenech Adami among those who it wants to call to testify before the Public Accounts Committee as part of new hearings on the power station extension contract.

The government and the opposition presented long lists of possible witnesses after Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt presented a motion at the end of a debate, which started weeks ago, where the members of the PAC questioned the Auditor-General on his report on the contract awarded to BWSC.

Dr Gatt’s motion noted that during the debate, no evidence of corruption, trading of influence or insider information had been found. It was also noted that the bid by BWSC was €296 million cheaper than other bids, and the selected plant could in future use natural gas.

The debate had also confirmed that emission levels by the selected plant would be the same applicable in Germany.

However, despite the cooperation of the Auditor-General, more information was required on particular points including the alleged links between bidder Bateman and the Labour Party, claims that it had insider information and conflicting statements between BWSC representative Joe Mizzi and his former employer.

Since the evidence could have juridical implications it was also being proposed that the procedure to be adopted by the committee would first be discussed and agreed by the House Business Committee.

The motion will be discussed at another sitting.

The list of people to be called as witnesses, as submitted by Dr Gatt, includes former and current Enemalta officials, the members of the various adjudication boards, the BWSC representatives, members of the Contracts Committee and the head of the environment section at Mepa, among others. Dr Gatt said that there were also two people indicated by the opposition as having allegedly given information to BWSC representative Joseph Mizzi. The list also includes representatives of Lehmeyer International, the representative of Bateman and government officials.

Labour MP Evarist Bartolo then presented another list with a high degree of commonality with the government list, but also including Dr Gatt himself, Michael Fenech Adami, Joe Saliba, Jesmond Mugliett, John Dalli, Richard Cachia Caruana, Malta’s permanent representative to the EU, contractor Nazzareno Vassallo, Prof. Edward Mallia and various officials at Dr Gatt’s ministry.

At the beginning of yesterday’s sitting, Mr Bartolo questioned whether the maintenance costs quoted in the contract were realistic. An Audit Office official, Mr Ambrogio told the committee that there was a framework agreement in skeletal form. This meant that there would be post-finalisation of these costs, the detailes of which would be looked at later.

Mr Bartolo noted that BWSC’s maintenance costs were lower. But how realistic was this? he asked. One needed to look at these costs collectively and not just consider other items single-handedly. When one makes use of heavy fuel oil, it was a foregone conclusion that maintenace requirements would be heavier and thus further works needed to be done, he noted

He compared the 2005 installation in Delimara of the four diesel mediums. In this case, one of the problems was that related to maintenance costs.

The BWSC low maintenance costs were giving the wrong impression and Mr Bartolo asked what the variancies were. Mr Ambrogio confirmed there would be varying costs and those would be calculated on the first five years.

Helena Dalli (PL) deplored the fact that the government had ignored these details before the tender adjudication.