The man claimed to have received €4 million in commission for helping Danish company Burmeister and Wain win the Delimara power station contract remained unreachable yesterday notwithstanding various attempts to contact him.

Several attempts to contact Joseph Mizzi were futile and multiple phone calls and a text message sent to him remained unanswered. This is in keeping with the previous experience of journalists from this newspaper and other media who tried to speak to him.

On Monday, BWSC chief executive officer Soren Barkholt denied bribery claims but, according to Labour leader Joseph Muscat, the CEO could not vouch for the firm's Maltese representative.

Following a meeting with BWSC, Dr Muscat quoted Mr Barkholt as saying: "Joe Mizzi is his own man."

The Infrastructure Ministry, which is politically responsible for Enemalta, took exception to this statement. Despite a clear declaration by BWSC that it had not bribed anyone or promised any bribe to anyone, "Joseph Muscat is still saying he is not satisfied", the ministry complained, challenging the party to name the person it believed to be involved in the alleged corruption.

Labour's tactic had now changed and the party was not pointing its guns at BWSC but at "someone else", which, the ministry said, was a "clear reference to Mr Mizzi".

Mr Barkholt flew to Malta on Monday to meet Auditor General Anthony Mifsud over allegations of corruption surrounding the award of the €200 million contract for a new power plant at Delimara.

Mr Mizzi did not attend Monday's meeting between the PL representatives and BWSC.

Mr Barkholt said the fee to Mr Mizzi was "substantially lower" than the €4 million being claimed by the Labour Party, although he refused to disclose it.

He said Mr Mizzi was "the right technical person for the job" when asked whether he was aware that the middleman was a former employee of Enemalta Corporation.

Last week, Labour presented the Auditor General with a dossier of newspaper articles which claim that BWSC and its Japanese mother company Mitsui handed over millions of euros to win contracts in several countries. Denmark's daily business newspaper Borsen named Mr Barkholt as the person who gave the go-ahead for someone to be bribed in the Philippines in 1999.

However, the company's CEO denied this claim, saying the Danish police had investigated and found that it was untrue.