Waste management projects were uncharted territory between 2011 and 2012 not just for WasteServ but also for other authorities, including the Contracts Department and the planning authority, where the permit issuing process also led to a number of variations, the Nationalist Party said.

Spokesmen Charlo Bonnici and George Pullicino said in a reaction to the Auditor General’s report on Wasteserv ‘An Analysis of Wasteserv Malta Limited’s Procurement: A Case Study Perspective’, that there were instances where technology was changing so the technical team felt the need to upgrade parts of the plant.

In such projects, where a landfill was being rehabilitated, one could not know exactly what was dumped in the past so it was difficult for a precise estimate to be made even in view of the fact that this type of work was not done in the past.

The variations always went through an approval process by the Department of Contracts after they were scrutinised by technical people.

The spokesmen said the Family Park had to be built on an abandoned landfill as a condition for the Sant’Antnin Waste Recycling plant permit. This stipulated the time by when this had to be done.

They said that the auditor’s report did not acknowledge the difficulties the technical team responsible for these estimates had to face. No cost base that was local and consistent existed on which one could make a precise calculation.

The PN said it expected the office to say that it did not communicated with all those involved in the project and who were put aside by this government for partisan reasons.

It was also curious how the office of the Auditor General found shortcomings in the modernisation of the Sant’Antnin plant when the European Union audited the process followed and forked out money for the project without any problems.

Had there really been shortcomings, the EU would have never approved the funds, the spokesmen said.