George Pullicino has asked the police to investigate a solar energy contract awarded during the time he was minister, after Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi alleged wrongdoing.

This call followed a similar request for a police investigation made by the government after it suspected fraud.

The matter was first raised in Parliament on Monday and Mr Pullicino yesterday continued to defend his integrity, insisting the Labour Party was only measuring things by its own yardstick.

“I never went to Spain to discuss tenders or overturned decisions taken by the privatisation unit or gave my wife €13,000 a month to serve as a public official,” Mr Pullicino lashed out. He released his letter to Acting Police Commissioner Ray Zammit, asking him to investigate the allegations made by Dr Mizzi in Parliament.

The controversy surrounds the award of a contract to a private consortium made up of a Spanish company and Maltese firm Alberta, before the general election, for the provision of PV panels on government buildings.

The 25-year contract worth €35 million was awarded to the company at a feed-in tariff of nearly 23c, which Dr Mizzi said was above the market price of 16c.

The current administration has refused to enter into the power purchase agreement with the company and an audit investigation this summer found administrative shortcomings.

Mr Pullicino yesterday denied he was involved in establishing the feed-in tariff, saying this was set by experts and accepted by the Malta Resources Authority.

I never went to Spain to discuss tenders or overturned decisions taken by the privatisation unit

But Dr Mizzi rebutted this claim, insisting the tariff had been proposed by the company and accepted by the ministry even before the resources authority gave its go-ahead.

Dr Mizzi published a letter of intent sent by the permanent secretary of Mr Pullicino’s ministry, Chris Ciantar, to the company that assured them the feed-in tariff was accepted.

He also produced a photograph, published on the Spanish company’s website, of Mr Pullicino personally handing over the letter of intent to representatives of the consortium.

In Parliament Dr Mizzi had also released an unsigned bank guarantee presented by the consortium from a Spanish bank. This letter, believed to have been fraudulent, was being investigated by the police.

When contacted Alberta director Liz Barbaro Sant declined to comment, saying the company felt the discussion was best left to the political parties.

ksansone@timesofmalta.com