Malta Shipyards yesterday denied the General Workers' Union's claim that it had lost €80 million on the Fairmount conversion projects, saying the actual figure was €37.7 million.

It said the union had added into its calculations overheads which would have been paid irrespective of the Fairmount projects.

The statement came after the union last Friday released its analysis of a report by auditors Pricewaterhousecoopers (PWC) into the loss-making projects.

The Fairmount jobs - which involved work on two semi-submersible barges, the Fjell and the Fjord - were the last nail in the shipyards' coffin. The PWC report, published in September, portrays a picture of gross mismanagement and concludes that the jobs were a loss-making venture before they even started.

Last Friday, the GWU published its own report, which is an analysis of the PWC audit. As he distributed the document, GWU general secretary Tony Zarb said his union suspected corruption in the way the project was handled.

The shipyards' management did not address this point yesterday but sought to clarify why the PWC audit had taken so long, and which was highlighted in the GWU report.

The management said that among other things, the audit firm was delayed by the fact that it was asked to look into the Fjell job, which was only completed last May.

"Therefore, there was no suspicious delay as one could be led to believe by the wording used in the GWU report".