Austin Gatt has defended the actions taken by Enemalta's chairman in dealing with a conflict of interest over the power station extension, insisting the Auditor General "does not seem to have read" the Enemalta Act.
"I will not change my position," the Investments Minister said when asked yesterday whether he was correct in defending Enemalta chairman Alex Tranter after the Auditor General said he should have resigned his post.
When the conflict of interest arose, Dr Gatt said, the chairman made it known and did not take part in any decision related to the award of the tender.
"Alex Tranter acted precisely in line with what the Enemalta Act and the code of ethics for public chairmen says. When a person has a conflict of interest that is not ongoing it should be declared and the person should not participate in the process. The Auditor felt he should go beyond what the country's regulations state as he has every right to do but I am certain of my position because the actions taken were in line with the law," Dr Gatt said.
Mr Tranter had a conflict of interest because he had business links with one of the subcontractors involved with BWSC, the eventual tender winner.
In his investigation of the Delimara power station extension tender, the Auditor noted that, prior to his declared conflict of interest, the chairman had appointed the members on the evaluation and adjudicating committees responsible for the evaluation of tenders.
"Notwithstanding this, the chairman failed to inform his minister to approve or otherwise the appointment of these committees following his declared conflict of interest. Considering the circumstances of this case it is felt that it would have been more prudent and appropriate had the Enemalta chairman resigned from his post at the time when he had declared a conflict of interest," the Auditor said.
According to Dr Gatt, the adjudicating committees were appointed almost a year before the conflict of interest was declared and when the request for proposals had not yet been issued and nobody knew who the potential bidders would be.
"Mr Tranter should not have resigned because he acted in line with what the Enemalta Act - which the Auditor General does not seem to have read - stipulates," Dr Gatt said.
Controversy over the Auditor's conclusions continued yesterday with Enemalta's chief technical officer denying having misled the Malta Environment and Planning Authority board in January over the issue of hazardous waste disposal.
Reacting to the Auditor's remarks that during the outline development permit meeting this year the CTO spoke of a contract for hazardous waste removal when there was none for the extension, Enemalta insisted its officer had said the company had a contract to export fly ash and bottom ash from the existing plants at Marsa and Delimara.
"The CTO made reference to the existing contract that Enemalta has for waste disposal. This was obviously interpreted wrongly as him referring to waste disposal from the new extension at Delimara," Enemalta said.
The company still has no contract to export and recycle between 7,000 and 10,000 tonnes of hazardous fly ash that will be collected by pollution control mechanisms when the extension comes on board.
The timely export of the waste, calculated at 15 containers per week, was deemed crucial by the Environment Impact Assessment.
Enemalta explained that the waste collected today was "very similar to the waste generated from the new plant with regard to quality and composition, the difference being that there are no by-products of sodium bicarbonate when it reacts with SO2.
"Even though the CTO did not explicitly state that he was referring to the existing plant at Delimara, the fact that he mentions that the composition of the waste from the existing plant is similar to the waste from the new plant, clearly indicates that he was referring to waste disposal from the existing Delimara and Marsa plant and not the new plant," the statement said, insisting it was unjust to interpret the comments as misleading.
ksansone@timesofmalta.com