The e-mail BWSC's Maltese intermediary Joseph Mizzi had written to the Danish company BWSC on the need to contact someone in the hierarchy had been suggested to him by his employer, he said under oath this evening.

Giving evidence to the Public Accounts Committee, Mr Mizzi said his English was deemed poor by his employer at Associated Supplies Ltd.

The committee is hearing a number of people in connection with the Auditor General's report on the €200 million contract awarded to Danish firm BWSC for the new power station.

The BWSC tender provided for a fuel oil turbine. Its offer cost €165 million, €27 million to convert to gas, and €18 million in maintenance costs over five years. A gas turbine offer by Israeli company Bateman's gas turbine cost €148 million and €35 million in maintenance costs over five years.

Answering questions by Labour MP Evarist Bartolo, Mr Mizzi denied that during the tendering process he had made any presentation to a minister.

In reply to a question by Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt, he said that he had never met any politician about the tendering process and declared that he had never approached anyone with any monetary offer or otherwise or influenced him in the decisions taken.

Mr Mizzi also declared that he never met Enemalta officials except during official meetings. He affirmed he had no documentation relating to correspondence with BWSC because his computer system had jammed and he had to replace it. He said there was not a lot of correspondence and he did not keep a hard copy.

Although he represented Lahmeyer International on some contracts awarded by the Malta Resources Authority, Mr Mizzi said he did not know that the company had been blacklisted internationally, or that Laymeyer and BWSC had jointly built a power station and that Enemalta had written to Lahmeyer. He only knew that Lahmeyer employed thousands of people.

Mr Mizzi said that as technical adviser to BWSC, he had written an e-mail about Mr Brent Everson who as representative for Barzilla was their competitor. He said that Barzilla wanted to take part in the tendering process but Everson had arrived three minutes after the submission of tenders had closed.

He said that an e-mail from BWSC without the company's letterhead and dealing with technical literature on diesel engines was sent to him because his employer had requested it to explain the matter to a third person.

Mr Mizzi denied any intervention on the changes affected to the 2002 Legal Notice in 2008. BWSC officials did not discuss this with him. He had suggested to BWSC the names of four civil contractors and he had met with Mr Nazzareno Vassallo after they had won the bid.

He told the Public Accounts Committee that as an ASL employee he always dealt with Enemalta contracts. BWSC wanted him to work on the power station tender.

He declared that he never went to the Contracts Department to influence changes in the Legal Notice. Nor did he intervene to change the tender specifications to reflect the amended Legal Notice.

Earlier, former Enemalta chairman Engineer Alex Tranter denied having any conflict of interest in the power station extension tendering process. He said that as soon as he knew that Vassallo Builders were to be involved in the project he had discussed the matter with the Finance Ministry ( then responsible for Enemalta).

He had acted according to the Code of Ethics for Public Service employees and had abstained from the process delegating his duties to the deputy chairman.

Answering questions by Mr Bartolo, Mr  Tranter declared that he did not have any conflict of interest because he was employed with Caremalta Limited which did not have anything to do with the construction company whose main shareholder was also Mr Vassallo. 

He said he was never involved in the tendering process but was involved in the long generation plan for Enemalta.  Decisions on the tendering process were taken by Enemalta committees at different levels. He had appointed these committees in consultation with the ministry.

Investigations on allegations that Enemalta personnel had passed on confidential information were probably made by the Corporation’s CEO because at the time Enemalta did not have an internal audit section. He did not take part in the investigation and could not remember any details.

He had replied to the Auditor General on these allegations because the letter had been sent to him as chairman. Mr Tranter said that Enemalta followed a logging procedure for every individual who called at Enemalta.

Former Enemalta CEO David Spiteri Gingell said that it was impossible for the power station extension to be powered by gas because Enemalta did not have the necessary infrastructure even though this was the original intention. A gas operated station could not be achieved before 2015.

He said that the change to allow the use of diesel over that of gas was made in the Legal Notice in 2005 and there was no contestation about the amendment. 

He regretted his mistakes as CEO which included the choice of Lahmeyer International, which was recommended by the MRA. He did not know that they were also BWSC’s agents nor that Mr Mizzi also represented Lahmeyer International.

Mr Spiteri Gingell denied that the BWSC equipment was a prototype saying there already was a similar process elsewhere.

The hearing continues tomorrow.