Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi this evening defied a ruling by Speaker Anglu Farrugia and refused to withdraw comments he made yesterday on former resources minister George Pullicino.
During a heated debate on Enemalta yesterday Dr Mizzi revealed that an audit investigation had found "shameful irregularities" in a €35m contract for the installation of photovoltaic panels on public buildings, awarded to a private company by the former government in its last days. The contract was awarded by George Pullicino's ministry and provided for a feed-in tariff of 23c per electricity unit for 25 years. The feed-in tariff should have been 16c.
At one point, Mr Mizzi, who repeatedly referred to Mr Pullicino as "Georgie", said many businessmen talk about the former Minister behind his back. He implied that they spoke about him in a negative manner.
Following a request by Mr Pullicino, the Speaker ruled today that Dr Mizzi should either withdraw the claim or substantiate it.
Mr Mizzi refused to withdraw his statement. When asked by the Speaker to substantiate his claims, Dr Mizzi presented documentation which purports to show that Mr Pullicino's ministry had accepted the feed-in tariff proposal. The documentation, he said, showed that the former Minister had personally delivered a letter of intent to Spanish company Solarig.
"The businessmen I referred to had bid for the same contract but were disqualified because of minor administrative shortcomings. They complained that the selection process was not far on them or the public and told me that, had they been negotiating on behalf of the government they would never have accepted those terms."
In reply, Mr Pullicino said the photo produced by the Minister had been issued by the Department of Information and Mr Mizzi had not uncovered some big secret. All documents tabled by Dr Mizzi were public. He insisted he did not have anything to do with adjudication and said that some of the people on the adjudicating committee were still advising the minister.
The Speaker then said he would examine the documents and the Minister's statement and report back with a decision. Earlier he said that, if the Minister did not withdraw his comments or substantiate them there would be a prima facie breach of privilege and the case would have to be referred to the Privileges Committee. Just because he had called in the police did not give the Minister the right to become a judge himself and judge others.