(Adds ministry's reaction, PL's reply to ministry)
The Maltese agent of the Danish company BWSC which won the €210 million contract for the new power station had links and an agreement with Lahmeyer International, a company commissioned by Enemalta to compare offers and give independent advice, PL leader Joseph Muscat said this morning.
Speaking on the programme Wide Angle, Dr Muscat said this could be seen from a document it had in its possession. He said the German company Lahmeyer International was found guilty of bribery and corruption in a number of countries. It was also blacklisted by the World Bank.
The Labour leader said these new developments cast bigger doubts on the tender process and the party had passed on the information to the Auditor General.
Dr Muscat said that in July last year, Lahmeyer International presented the report ‘Emission Assessment of Diesel Generator Units and Combined Cycle Gas Turbines – Comparison’ which it had been asked to draw up by Enemalta to analyse the level of pollution of engines for the extension of the Delimara power station.
The Enemalta adjudicating board took Lahmeyer International’s advice to say that the BWSC plant was up to date and that it would curb its pollution levels to be according to law.
Although Lahmeyer International said that the BWSC technology was prototype, it also said this could work better than MAN’s, another company which also proposed a plant which was operated by heavy fuel oil.
In an e-mail written by Maltese agent Joseph Mizzi on April 7, 2008 at 2.50 p.m., the Maltese agent boasted of his links and agreements with several international companies including BWSC u l-Lahmeyer International.
Lahmeyer had a bad international reputation and the World Bank decided it would not be given any of its projects between 2006 and 2013, Dr Muscat said.
He said that inMalta, this company was being allowed to actively take part in the energy sector, advising on amendments to environmental legislation and drawing up studies on power station and interconnectors technology.
The company was found guilty in more than one case of drawing up its studies in a way to assist companies it wanted to help.
Dr Muscat said that Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi continued to defend BWSC, in spite of being linked to several cases of corruption.
MINISTRY’S REACTION
In its reaction, the Infrastructure Ministry said that the opposition’s intention was to hinder each and every project the government was working upon.
This could be clearly seen from the way the leader of the Opposition continued to create doubts for processes to lengthen, keeping the government from implementing projects the country needed.
This was what it was doing in the case of the Delimara power station.
Everyone agreed the extension to the power station was needed so that the country would close the Marsa station by 2012 but the Opposition chose to forget the common good and hinder the country’s development.
Lehmayer, the ministry said, was only involved in the verification of whether what the four tenderers said about the exhaust gas cleaning of their systems was realistic. It was not involved in the final decision process.
PL'S REPLY TO MINISTRY
In reply to the ministry’s statement, the PL said that the ministry confirmed that the government acted on the advice of Lahmeyer with which Mr Mizzi had links.
It was clear from the statement that for the government it was not important how the millions taxpayers were paying were spent.
It was because it cared that the PL insisted that money should be spent in the best possible manner.
The PL said it was PN governments’ fault that the Marsa power station was still open, something these same governments had been promising for 20 years.