Former Resources Minister George Pullicino has written to the Police Commissioner (see letter below) asking him to investigate claims by government minister Konrad Mizzi that the Nationalist Government had given a €35 million feed-in tariff contract binding the country for 35 years.

In a press conference shortly after, the minister stood by his claims and said the tariff was proposed by the Spanish party in the Alberta consortium and the ministry issued a letter of intent approving the proposed feed-in tariff.

Mr Mizzi said in Parliament that an audit investigation had found shameful irregularities in the contract, for the installation of photovoltaic panels on public buildings.

The contract provided for a feed-in tariff of 23c per electricity unit for 25 years. The feed-in tariff should have been 16c.

Addressing a news conference this afternoon, Mr Pullicino said the Labour government measures matters by their own yardstick.

“In our time, tenders were not decided by ministers. I never went to Spain to discuss tenders or overturn decisions of privatisation units or gave my wife €13,000 a month to serve as a public official.”

Mr Pullicino said that the feed-in tariff was not his decision but was authorised by the Malta Resources Authority.

Mr Mizzi showing Mr Pullicino having the PV consortium the letter of intent. Photo: Jason Borg

But in a press conference this afternoon, Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi said that the high feed-in tariff was given the go-ahead by Mr Pullicino’s ministry.

“The tariff was proposed by the Spanish party in the Alberta consortium and the ministry issued a letter of intent approving the proposed feed-in tariff.”

Mr Mizzi released a letter by then Permanent Secretary Chris Ciantar (see below) accepting the tariff even before the MRA had accepted it.

The letter of intent, he said, was meant to be a legally binding commitment months before the MRA had approved the feed-in tariff.

The letter, he said, was personally presented to the consortium by Mr Pullicino as evidenced by the Spanish website declaring that Mr Pullicino delivered the letter in his personal capacity.

Mr Mizzi insisted that Mr Pullicino was responsible and said he confirmed this fact with the former minister’s reaction in Parliament yesterday.

Mr Mizzi said that when the contract was being considered, all other bidders were excluded on administrative issues but Alberta was in spite of shortcomings, such as the Spanish bank letter that was unsigned.

This raised doubts and the bank confirmed it could not confirm the document was authentic, especially because the bank ceased to exist as a result of a merger.

Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

The PN's news conference was also addressed by Opposition leader Simon Busuttil who said that whenever the Prime Minister had no replies to criticism, he started throwing mud.

This was a schoolyard bully tactic that would not make the Opposition cringe.

“We expect answers rather than a government that tries to bully the opposition. It is a tactic that we are used to now… Government uses corruption to throw mud rather than to fight it,” he said.