Updated | Busuttil forwards Gasol’s LNG proposal to PN government for NAO investigation

Opposition leader Simon Busuttil forwarded to the Auditor General a copy of a proposal for the construction of a LNG power station that the previous PN administration had received and rejected.

MaltaToday is informed that the proposal to the PN administration was put forward before 2010.

Busuttil said he wants to provide further information to the NAO in its ongoing investigation into contracts signed by the government with the Electrogas consortium for the construction of the Delimara power plant and a €360 million state guarantee to the consortium.

“The documents clearly show that the proposal was very similar to the one that was proposed to the Labour Party during its electoral campaign,” Busuttil wrote to auditor general Charles Deguara.

He said that similarities include the involvement of GEM Holdings and Gasol – the former a shareholder in Electrogas and the latter who was struck off the consortium last July.

“Worse than that, the documents indicate that the current power plant specifications were influenced, if not dictated, by the people who had a direct interest in the contract,” he said. “I believe that this flies in the face of good governance in the administration of public funds, and I urge you to take this document in consideration throughout your investigations of the power station.”

Busuttil revealed this offer for the first time last week during a no confidence motion against the government. He said that the information, which he had recently received from “high-ranking people” within the PN, indicated that Labour had struck a pre-electoral deal with Electrogas and that its expression of interest for the power station was a sham from the start. 

In a reaction, the Labour Party questioned why Busuttil had waited until now to hand over the document when he had long been calling for an investigation.

“Why the afterthought?” the Labour Party questioned, saying that Busuttil had confirmed he knew energy bills could be lowered but did nothing about it.