The Labour Party this evening dismissed a KPMG study on its energy plan, presented this afternoon by Finance Minister Tonio Fenech.

Labour Candidate Konrad Mizzi said the KPMG study was commissioned by EneMalta today and was delivered today. The study's conclusions were wrong, he said, because they were based on mistaken figures given to the agency by the government.

"KPMG used the figures given to it by the government, not Labour's figures," Dr Mizzi said.

“We stand by our own figures,” he added when speaking at a press conference.

He noted that Prof Edward Mallia, an independent expert, had said in a timesofmalta.com comment that: "KPMG were asked to examine effects on EXISTING (DEC 2011) tariffs if gasoil or HFO was used in DPSE test period. They first swallowed a fraudulent brief from Enemalta, which said DPSE was to be run for 24hrs/day for 240days. Then they made a wrong comparison ending up with a doubly wrong (but greatly desired!) result: gasoil use would lead to a 10.2% increase in EXISTING tariffs. No apology."

Dr Mizzi said KPMG in their calculations had included Enemalta profits twice because they did not know that the PL figures already included return on capital employed of 8.4%.

The PL, he said, used actual Enemalta figures and KPMG used 2013 projections.

Their unit cost of production, based on government figures, was off and the PL stood by its estimate that under its plan, Enemalta would have an annual saving of €187 million per year.

On capital expenditure, the government was saying costs would be €670 million while the PL insisted that costs would be closer to €300 million. The government had given KPMG capital cost figures based on a Bateman presentation, which was not, however, used by the PL.

It was not true that Malta would need purpose-built gas tankers. Representatives of various companies had said they could use small ships which would berth alongside the power station. Others said they could use bigger ships which would unload in the middle of the bay. The PL used the most conservative figures.

As for the costs of the gas tanks, Dr Mizzi said the PL figures were conservative  and therefore covered the required spending to reinforce the foundations.

“We stand by our figures,” Dr Mizzi said, pointing out that while Labour’s consultants were present for the PL presentation last week, no KPMG representatives attended Mr Fenech’s press conference.

MUSCAT REACTION

Labour leader Joseph Muscat, speaking at Ta' Giorni, also insisted that the KPMG report was erroneous because the auditors were given the wrong figures.
Interviewed by Simone Cini and Robert Musumeci, the Labour leader said KPMG relied on figures given to them by Enemalta.

He said the main fault was with the cost to generate every unit of electricity because the auditors did not compare like with like.

He said the auditors piled onto Labour's 9c6 additional costs and compared this to Enemalta's raw cost to generate electricity.

Dr Muscat insisted his party was still an underdog in this election because the Nationalist Party was using its power of incumbency to dish out permits and promotions.

"People should take what is offered to them but I trust that people will in the anonymity of the polling booth do what is right," he said.

Asked about his assertion that people in the vicinity of power stations were suffering from a higher incidence of cancer, Dr Muscat played down the denial issued by the Health Ministry.

"Go and tell it to those people who have suffered as a result. Government's statement is an insult," he said, with reference to a woman, who recounted her family's medical ordeal on TV last Friday.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.