BWSC asked Enemalta to revise stringent emission limits

The BWSC sales manager Martin Kok Jensen testified Wednesday evening in the public accounts committee, and denied having attempted to influence any people in the award of the €200 million Delimara power station extension.

Answering to questions by transport, infrastructure and communications minister Austin Gatt whether he or any BWSC agents had paid any money or reward to influence the tender award, Jensen – who had already been interviewed by the Auditor General in 2009 – said:

“The answer to that question is very simple. No. We have never approached anybody.”

Labour MP Evarist Bartolo interjected to remind Jensen of a statement by BWSC director Søren Barkholt that he could not vouch for the actions of people outside the company.

“We have never approached anybody here locally, and this must be clearly emphasised,” Jensen said, and he then denied any knowledge of BWSC agent Joe Mizzi have done anything similar.

In his testimony, Jensen said Joe Mizzi – the agent for both BWSC and Lahmeyer International in Malta – had approached BWSC’s parent company Mitsui in Japan, which then referred him to the Danish company in January 2005.

Mizzi was then an employee of Associated Supplies Limited, but was soon to become a self-employed agent to represent BWSC in its bid for the Delimara extension.

A brief disagreement over when Mizzi had resumed his services for BWSC led to a request by Labour MP Evarist Bartolo to request the correspondence between BWSC and Mizzi. At this point Jensen said BWSC had “already cooperated with the National Audit Office in its investigations”, sounding unwilling to provide the material, but Bartolo insisted on the formal request that Jensen provides all email correspondence.

In his questioning, Bartolo pushed the line with Jensen that BWSC must have been impressed by Mizzi’s networking capabilities, citing emails in which Mizzi talked of the need to “tap higher political sources.”

But Jensen said Mizzi had been a perfect match for BWSC due to his knowledge of power plants.

“We’ve seen bragging before… others like Joe Mizzi would do anything possible to make them sound like they were the only advisor. Whether it is bragging or a beauty contest, it’s been seen before,” Jensen said.

Bartolo also told Jensen that literature he sent to Mizzi without a BWSC letterhead had been used by the agent to pass it off as ‘objective’ documentation on their technology to Enemalta.

Jensen replied that Enemalta was not sufficiently aware of what technology they wanted in 2005, so much so that in 2006 BWSC had asked Enemalta to investigate why the emission limits in Maltese law had gone beyond those required by EU law.

“We had clarification meetings with Enemalta where we informed them that the emission requirements they had in mind were far more demanding than EU requirements. If we hadn’t brought it up, our competitors would surely have, and Enemalta would have overspent on unnecessary requirements,” Jensen said, citing a figure as much as €30 million in overspending.

Evarist Bartolo has previously argued that when the bidding process started, both BWSC and Man Diesel did not qualify for the supply of the Delimara plant because they were excluded by a policy for a gasoil turbine and emission limits. But he claimed emission laws where changed to allow a plant fuelled by heavy fuel oil to be proposed.

It was revealed during the PAC meeting this evening that a differing interpretation between Enemalta and the Malta Environment and Planning Authority of what constituted a diesel engine in the emissions law, led to request for a legal opinion from the European Commission.

Former MEPA head of environment Martin Seychell said MEPA defined a diesel engine as a machine fuelled by diesel, while Enemalta defined it as a diesel-cycle engine. The EC agreed with the latter definition in an opinion it gave in November 2007, which led to the amendment of the law.

All witnesses this evening also answered ‘no’ to a standard question by Minister Austin Gatt whether they had accepted any money or gift to be influenced in the award of the tender. These included members of Enemalta’s evaluation committee and from the General Contracts Committee.

Earlier in the sitting, ASL chairman Joseph Rizzo denied having suggested the wording of the email from his former employee Joe Mizzi to BWSC suggesting the need “to tap further sources higher up in the political hierarchy”.

Mizzi yesterday claimed it was Rizzo who suggested the wording because he deemed his level of English to be poor.

Rizzo declined to name the computer expert who retrieved the emails from Mizzi’s computer when he left ASL. At this point Bartolo raised an objection to Austin Gatt’s request to name the expert. The sitting was suspended for a few minutes and when it resumed, Gatt asked the question again after Bartolo withdrew his objection.

Rizzo replied that he did not wish to reveal the name, to which Gatt said he would reserve the right to insist on his request at a later stage. Rizzo was asked to produce all emails in another sitting.