Labour leader Joseph Muscat yesterday said he hoped the people called before a parliamentary committee to testify on the power station extension contract would turn up for the sake of transparency and accountability.
“Our questions about the (Danish company) BWSC contract are increasing,” Dr Muscat said, adding that taxpayers deserved replies over matters and government was avoiding this type of public scrutiny.
Dr Muscat said he stood by the decision of Charles Mangion – who chairs the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) – to schedule discussions on the contract for this week.
As part of the committee’s discussions, certain people had been called to testify. These included former Enemalta chairman Alex Tranter, BWSC local agent Joe Mizzi and consultant David Spiteri Gingell, Dr Muscat said.
Parliament’s Standing Orders give the committee the power to summon witnesses who may be ordered to attend through a warrant issued by the committee chairman.
On Wednesday, four government members of the seven-member PAC walked out of the PAC’s evening meeting, leaving the chairman without a working quorum.
The walk-out came after Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt objected to the fact that One Radio’s noon news bulletin had pre-empted Dr Mangion in the plans he was laying out for future sittings of the PAC.
During the meeting, Dr Mangion said he would be dedicating three sittings to the Auditor General’s report on the power station extension contract awarded to BWSC – starting today.
Dr Gatt objected strongly and insisted on a vote over the subjects on the agenda but Dr Mangion turned down the request adding he was only fixing a timetable, something he could have done alone.
Dr Gatt then walked out of the meeting followed by government MPs Chris Said, Robert Arrigo and Charlo Bonnici.
Dr Mangion said the meeting could not go on because of the lack of quorum but read out a list of people who would be called to testify before the committee’s meetings discussing the BWSC.
As he was doing so, government whip David Agius stood up and said Dr Mangion was in breach of Standing Orders because the meeting could not continue.
Dr Gatt later called on the Speaker to give a ruling after the government MPs’ call for a vote in the PAC was turned down. Yesterday, the Labour leader criticised the government for trying to avoid public scrutiny on the BWSC contract. He added that Dr Gatt’s reason for walking out of Monday’s meeting was not valid as he often found out the agenda of what was going to be discussed in Parliament through the media.
Today the meeting will be called at 7 p.m. but it is not yet clear whether it will go ahead.
This depends on whether the Nationalist MPs turn up. However, Mr Agius said yesterday, the “inclination” is to wait for the Speaker’s decision first.
Speaking during a PN party activity yesterday, Dr Gatt said he believed Dr Mangion’s decision not to allow a vote went against the rules of democracy. He said he would respect the Speaker’s decision.
The manner in which the matter unfolded – with One News breaking the news of the evening sitting in the afternoon – reinforced his idea that the meeting had been “orchestrated”.
“Dr Mangion is a rather good chairman. If I had to speculate I would say that the instructions came from somewhere else and, poor man, he ended up caught in the middle,” Dr Gatt said.
The €210 million power station contract, awarded to BWSC, has been a source of a never-ending controversy. The choice of BWSC, which will supply eight diesel engines, was criticised severely on the basis that its technology is untested and uses polluting heavy fuel oil.
A report by the Auditor General had flagged a number of shortcomings in the way the contract was awarded.