‘€25-€30m saved in fuel efficiency’

BWSC Director of Sales and Marketing Martin Kok Jensen yesterday told the House Public Accounts Committee that his company had saved Malta between €25 and €30 million in fuel efficiency when it had drawn Enemalta Corporation’s attention that the emission levels they were requesting were more stringent than those dictated by the EU.

Joseph Rizzo denied saying “we need further contacts higher up in political hierarchy”

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

The Danish company had asked the corporation to verify its assertion. If the Danish firm had not done that, he said, it would have led the corporation to overspend un-necessarily. The 2002 Legal Notice dealing with emission levels was then changed.

Mr Jensen said that the technology that would be used in the power station extension would produce double the fuel efficiency Enemalta was getting at present. Emissions would be reduced significantly with Malta achieving the same levels of other European countries. He said that the emission abatement technology was already being used in the Azores.

He also declared that the export of waste was not part of their contract with Enemalta. Progress had been registered on the maintenance agreement but one had to ask Enemalta over the delay to finalise it. BWSC had chosen Joseph Mizzi to represent them because of his technical competence. After terminating his employment with Associated Supples Ltd, Mr Mizzi had contacted them through their representative in Japan some time before August 2007. He promised to look into the files relating to exchange of correspondence with Mr Mizzi and send it to the PAC.

Mr Jensen declared that he never approached anyone with any offer to influence the decision-making process. He did not have any knowledge that Mr Mizzi as their agent, might have approached anyone.

Earlier, Associated Supplies Ltd chairman Joseph Rizzo categorically denied that he had suggested the wording of an e-mail Mr Mizzi had sent to BWSC suggesting “that we need to do further contacts higher up in the political hierarchy”. In a written, later sworn, statement to the 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.

Mr Rizzo also declared that while in his employment, Mr Mizzi did not always copy him e-mails he had sent to BWSC. This 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 was. Labour MP Evarist Bartolo 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.

The e-mails, which 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. There were also instances when Mr Mizzi did not inform him of meetings with BWSC and Enemalta officials.

Mr Rizzo saidBWSC wanted Mr Mizzi to be the company’s representative on this tender.

Richard Cachia Caruana, Malta’s permanent representative to the European Union, told the committee that he had met Bateman’s legal adviser Keith Grima in Malta 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.

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 they had not been approached with any incentive to influence the tendering process.

Former Minister Jesmond Mugliet told the PAC that he could not divulge what was discussed in Cabinet. He was answering Mr Bartolo who asked him to confirm whether the Cabinet had approved the national electricity generation plan specifying a gas-fired power station. The permanent secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Alfred Camilleri, said in the Auditor’s General report that he had seen things of which he never had any previous knowledge.

This included the part that Lahmeyer International had been blacklisted. He was involved in this issue when he received a letter from the PAC chairman. He declared that he would change nothing from what he had written to the PAC chairman even today.

Carl Fabri, who has a one per cent shareholding in Mr Mizzi’s company Typeset, said he didn’t know and had never met the BWSC agent.

He only knew Pamela Mizzi because he had a small printing press. Mr Mizzi never informed him of the power station tender.

Michael Fenech Adami testified that he had never made any lobbying or other work or approached anyone on behalf of any bidder in the tendering process.

Finance Minister Tonio Fenech presented the PAC with an economic report by Gordon Cordina on behalf of Cubed Consultants Ltd for Enemalta Corporation which concluded that the equipment purchased by the corporation using heavy fuel oil compared with other sources was the most economic while it respected emission levels.

Mr Bartolo gave notice of presenting a technical report by Edward Mallia and another submitted by the Marsaxlokk local council.

Thirty-one witnesses gave evidence before the PAC while two others were not called.