Government, opposition trade charges on Delimara

The government and opposition traded charges yesterday over the conclusions of the Auditor General in a fresh investigation on the Delimara power station extension.

While the government chose to underline the fact that the auditor’s report threw out allegations made by Labour MP Evarist Bartolo last year in the wake of another report on the power station extension, the opposition underlined the fact that the auditor found serious shortcomings in the process.

The Finance Ministry, responsible for Enemalta, said the Auditor uncovered the Labour Party’s “political dishonesty” when he concluded that fresh allegations were unfounded.

The allegations primarily concerned the fact that some bidders had a common parent company, which the auditor found had no bearing on the tendering process.

“This report showed how the opposition was ready to invent things to try and prove a point when it knew that it was lying,” the ministry said, accusing the Labour Party of deceit by recycling old allegations that were already proven wrong.

The Labour Party rebutted the accusations, insisting that the auditor confirmed serious shortcomings in the tendering process that awarded the extension contract to Danish firm BWSC.

The opposition said the auditor noted that the contract conditions were drawn up in such a way that prevented the authorities from stopping BWSC from engaging subcontractors that were involved in bribery cases abroad.

The auditor’s investigation also highlighted the fact that a lawyer coming from the legal office that served Enemalta for 20 years was also the legal representative of BWSC.

It also confirmed that former Enemalta chairman Alex Tranter should have resigned over a conflict of interest because he worked for contractor Żaren Vassallo, who was one of BWSC’s subcontractors.