San Lawrenz solar power ‘scam’ under police investigation
The solar power panel deal that gave San Lawrenz in Gozo renewable energy is under police investigation, and not being investigated by the European Commission.
The Internal Audit and Investigations Department (IAID) – Malta’s EU funds audit authority – has stated that neither the EU or the IAID are investigating fraud alleged to have taken place in an EU-funded scheme for photovoltaic panels.
The allegations related to an EU-funded subsidies for photovoltaic panels, approved by the Nationalist local council of San Lawrenz Gozo with solar panel contractor Godfrey Formosa’s firm Di Natura. Di Natura, was chosen out of a total of 11 other contractors by the San Lawrence council for a tender to offer a 50% refund, paid by government, on solar panels. The 50% discount was however capped at €3,000.
San Lawrenz local council planned to subsidise the 80 applicants in San Lawrence with the €3,000 refund, even though the panels did not cost more than €4,300. According to the government’s scheme, the applicants should be refunded at total of €2,150 as calculated by the 50% refund scheme. Mayor Noel Formosa claimed that while residents would be paying €4,000, the price on the invoice would be marked as €6,000, therefore they would receive a refund of half the price (€3,000).
The scheme was suspended by the Malta Resources Authority (MRA) last March after claiming the marketing ploy was illegal. The scheme came to an abrupt end when the other 10 contractors realised that there was an abuse in the scheme offered by Di Nautra and brought forward a protest to the MRA to investigated the proposed scheme. On March 30, the authority announced that it will be suspending the scheme.
The IAID said the system of management and control set up in Malta is such that at the first indications of irregularities or fraud a control process is triggered, “even, as in this particular case, not a single eurocent had as yet been spent from national or EU funds.”
In this particular case, the Planning and Priorities Coordination Department (PPCD) within the Office of the Prime Minister had immediately suspended the scheme and the suspected fraud was referred to the Malta PoliceForce, where an investigation is ongoing. No EU or other audits are envisaged because no EU or national funds have been spent.
