The government was duty bound to open legal proceedings against the suppliers of the new power station extension for not declaring that three of their subcontractors had corruption charges levelled at them, according to Labour Deputy Leader Anġlu Farrugia.
He said BWSC, the Danish company that won the €220 million contract for the extension of the Delimara power plant, was duty bound, under Maltese law, to disclose that subcontractors Siemens, ABB Ltd and Wärtsilä had corruption charges levelled at them.
This failing on the part of BWSC, Dr Farrugia said, could entitle the government to impose a penalty equivalent to 10 per cent of the contract's sum, meaning it could recoup some €20 million.
"If the government doesn't even want to do this, then it is obvious it's not defending the Maltese... but wants to protect those involved in corruption," Dr Farrugia said.
The Labour Party has been heavily critical of the project on the grounds that the technology chosen was not the cleanest on offer and that there were several irregularities in the process that strongly suggested corruption. "We have people in the south who are terrified of the new plant," Dr Farrugia said.
Speaking during an interview on One Radio, the station belonging to the Labour Party, Dr Farrugia accused Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi of failing the national interest when he sat idle for eight months before calling for a police investigation into corruption allegations on a tender for the super yachts facility.
Dr Gonzi reacted to this claim, pointing out that he acted as soon as the allegations reached him.
Dr Gonzi had asked the Police Commissioner to investigate the matter on May 19, after Labour Leader Joseph Muscat raised the matter in Parliament that same week.
The Finance Minister, Tonio Fenech, and an official at the Prime Minister's office had been told in September that one of the bidders claimed that an official on the adjudication board had asked for money in return for favourable treatment of their bid. Dr Gonzi has insisted he was not made aware of these claims at the time.
The Finance Minister had looked into the matter but decided not to call for police intervention because he did not find any substance to the claims.
On this point, however, Dr Farrugia said it was "unheard of" that ministers carried out investigations by calling the people involved into their office and asking them to sign an affidavit.
"Investigations do not take place that way, serious people don't act like that," Dr Farrugia said.
He also called on the government to implement the Whistleblower's Act, saying that the current system protected those who were corrupt and not those who had the courage to stand up and report them.