Update 2: Power station tender - ASL chairman denies Mizzi's e-mail claim

Associated Supplies Ltd chairman Joseph Rizzo has categorically denied that he had suggested the wording of the e-mail to the Danish firm BWSC suggesting “that we need to do further contacts higher up in the political hierarchy”  to Joseph Mizzi.

In a written statement to the House Public Accounts Committee, Mr Rizzo said he trusted Mr Mizzi  who “could write in good English”.

Giving evidence before the same committee yesterday, Mr Mizzi had  said the e-mail was suggested to him by his employer, Mr Rizzo, who deemed that Mr Mizzi’s level of English was poor.

The PAC is hearing a number of witnesses in connection with the Auditor General’s report on the award of of 200 million euro contract to BWSC for the Delimara power station.

Mr Rizzo also declared that while in his employment, Mr Mizzi did not always copy him emails he had sent to BWSC as he came to know later when he engaged a computer expert to retrieve emails from Mr Mizzi’s computer once the employee had left the company.

After being asked by Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt, Mr Rizzo declined to reveal who the computer expert.  Evarist Bartolo (PL) objected to the question and the sitting was suspended for a few minutes.

When it resumed, PAC chairman Charles Mangion (PL) invited Dr Gatt to put the question to the witness again as Mr Bartolo had withdrawn his objection.

These emails, which at the request of Mr Bartolo are to be produced by Mr Rizzo in another sitting, showed that Mr Mizzi had contacts with BWSC and was keeping him out of the loop. He said that BWSC wanted Mr Mizzi to be the company’s representative on this tender.

Mr  Rizzo also said that Mr Mizzi did not always inform him of meetings with BWSC  and Enemalta officials.

BWSC had advised Enemalta to revise emission limits - representative

Also giving evidence this evening was BWSC representative Martin Kok Jensen. He said that BWSC had informed Enemalta that its requirements were far more demanding than EU requirements and would lead the corporation to unnecessary overspending. The legal notice was then changed.

BWSC's solution, he said, would save Enemalta €25 million to €30 million per year due to the fuel efficiency of the solution it provided.

Replying to questions by Mr Bartolo, Mr Jensen told the committee that Joseph Mizzi first approached the company on behalf of his employer Associated Supplies Ltd in 2005. At the time, information about the project was still foggy.

Dialogue with Mr Mizzi developed following a first meeting with a company representative who was on holiday in Malta.

Mr Mizzi, Mr Jensen said, had given him the impression that he was a very strong technical person. He fulfilled the requirements of technical competence. He was also one of the few advisers the company ever consulted who knew nearly as much as its representatives.

Mr Jensen recalled asking for technical input because the client had not been clear what kind of solution it was going for. At that time BWSC was trying to promote slow speed engines to match Enemalta's capabilities.

Later BWSC was instructed by Enemalta that it wanted to concentrate on medium speed because they wanted smaller sized engines.

Asked about a letter he had sent Mr Mizzi not on a company letterhead, Mr Jensen said this was something the company did at the initial stages of a project when different technologies were being evaluated and it was not necessary for a company to promote its name.

Mr Jensen said that Mr Mizzi had to leave ASA at one point because he had fallen ill.

After some months he again contacted BWSC and said he was fit for fighting again. He told BWSC he was no longer an ASL employee.

Asked for copies of correspondence between Mr Mizzi and the company, Mr Jensen said he could not say what correspondence was available but he would look into the matter.

He said when asked by Dr Gatt that he had never approached anyone who had any role in this tender and offered money or any kind of reward.

Mr Jensen said that the solution BWSC was providing was state of the art solution not just for Malta but also for Europe.

BWSC, he said, had built 160 power plants and it was confident in the technology it could provide.

Malta’s Representative to the European Commission Richard Cachia Caruana had met Bateman’s legal adviser in Malta Keith Grima with the latter telling him that a company representative wanted to give him some report.

He said this was a political brief which Bateman’s representative passed on to two officials in Malta’s EU representation in Brussels. told the Public Accounts Committee that he

Mr Cachia Caruana said that he was involved in the communication about the 2002 Legal Notice, with the European Commission accepting the fact that the Legal Notice had been changed to be in line with the EU directive. He said he had no difficulty in providing correspondence on this matter.

Former MEPA Environmental Director Martin Seychell said that MEPA and Enemalta had taken the European Commission’s opinion on the definition of a diesel engine whether this meant fuelled by diesel or whether it was a diesel cycle irrespective of the fuel used. The latter prevailed.  Mr Seychell said the specifications were changed to reflect this opinion.

Mr Seychell and members of the technical evaluation team and of the General Contracts Committee all declared that they had not been approached with any incentive to influence the tendering process.