A generic email account on which bids were submitted to Enemalta's fuel procurement committee could have been accessed in eight different ways even without a password, the Parliamentary Secretary for Justice, Owen Bonnici said this evening.
Speaking at the opening of a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee, Dr Bonnici tabled a letter about the e-mail account and asked the Auditor-General to verify whether this account had been accessed by people rather than the chairman.
The PAC was continuing its hearings on a report about oil procurement procedures at Enemalta.
The Auditor-General said that he would seek assistance from MITA (the government's IT agency) as well as from an independent expert.
Nationalist MP Beppe Fenech Adami asked Dr Bonnici to reveal the identity of whoever wrote the letter so that the auditor would not end up appointing the same expert.
Dr Bonnici said he would give the name to the auditor to be on the safe side.
The committee members then questioned Louis Giormaina. He served as executive chairman of Enemalta in November 2011 and was appointed CEO last May. He is also chairman of MOBC, Enemalta's oil bunkering arm.
He said that when he stepped in as MOBC chairman, the company was not functioning as Mepa had withdrawn the environmental permit. His remit was to make it compliant as a storage company. The permit had been withdrawn following complaints of a foul smell at its facilities in Marsa near Hexagon House. New filters were commissioned last month, in the presence of Mepa officials and he expected the environment permit to be restored in the coming days as the feedback was positive. He said that the plans were for MOBC to offer storage facilities.
The Enemalta CEO said that he was never given an explanation why MOBC had stop offering bunkering facilities. There are several companies specialised in bunkering including IBOL and Falzon Group.
At one time IBOL used to store its product at MOBC's facilities.
Asked by Labour MP Chris Agius about the procedure to process oil procurement bids he said that the Fuel Procurement Committee used to receive a password from MIta with which to access the bids. During his time there were a number of bids which were disqualified as they were submitted late.
Asked by Labour MP Justyne Caruana about the consignments of fuel from Trafigura which had excessive levels of sulphur content in 2011, but prior to his appointment, he said that he only became aware of this incident from the Auditor's report. He was not aware whether Trafigura had been fined for this breach of contract.
Mr Giordmaina having gone out to restaurants with representatives of oil suppliers, following FPC meetings as had been alleged by other witnesses.
Asked about oil trader George Farrugia, who was Totsa's and Trafigura's agent, the Enemalta CEO said that he never met Mr Farrugia except in January of last year during a meeting with a Totsa delegation.
Mr Giordmaina said that he was not aware in what capacity Mr Farrugia was present in that particular meeting.
LATE BIDS CONSIDERED
Asked about the submission of bids, Mr Giodmaina said bids submitted in the time gap between the deadline and the opening of the email account were still considered as permissible according the fuel procurement policy, as there was no possibility of contamination.
On his part the Auditor-General remarked that such a procedure left much to be desired as one “could not shift the goalposts” by extending the deadline.
Dr Beppe Fenech adami (PN) said that in view of this he was requesting the auditor to review all bids submitted this year till the end of October, as the actual cut off time was not the proper deadline bit rather the moment that the email account was opened.
Throughout these hearings it had transpired that between 2008 and 2011, 31 out of 153 bids had been received late and that nine of them eventually won the tenders.
BWSC PLANT SAVINGS
The hearing also touched on the controversial BWSC plant, when the committee chairman and PN MP Jason Azzopardi asked the Enemalta CEO to quantify the savings in fuel costs as a result of the greater efficient of this plant.
Mr Giordimaina initially said that this amounted to some €12 million per year but later retracted his statement, when confronted with the fact that from a Parliamentary Question tabled in May this year, it transpired that this amount was equivalent to the first quarter of this year alone. Mr Giordimaina said that he would look further on this matter and send an exact reply.