PN MEP David Casa has formally asked the European Commission whether it will investigate the ‘hasty’ manner in which the procurement process for the building of the new power station took place.

The government opted to issue an expression of interest rather than a full tendering process for the €460 million power station.

The ElectroGas consortium was identified as the preferred bidder on 13 October 2013, and was officially recommended as the winning bidder on 7 December 2013.

In his question tabled in the European Parliament, Mr Casa pointed out that the procurement process “was done with particular haste due to the pressure on the government to deliver on its electoral promise to build the new power plant within a two-year timeframe.”

Originally, the power station was supposed to be operational by March 2015.

The government admitted late last year that this deadline would not be met, and gave a new deadline of June 2016.

In his question filed on 3 September, Mr Casa asked the European Commission whether it will investigate if, “in order to expedite matters, the government of Malta has issued a full tendering process in order to choose the preferred bidder, which is expected in case of projects of this nature.”

“In its haste to choose a bidder for this major project the government of Malta also failed to assess in detail the financial health of all the partners of the chosen bidder ElectroGas Malta, with the consequence that one of the partners Gasol did not hold sufficient funds to meet its commitments and it was dropped from the consortium. The departure of Gasol occurred during the implementation of the project.

“Will the Commission investigate whether the departure of one of the lead partners in this consortium is in line with the current rules governing public procurement,” Mr Casa asked.

Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi said recently that the due diligence process carried out by the government focussed on the consortium as a whole, with Siemens and Socars’ financial strength putting the government at ease.

A group of Maltese investors from the Gasan and Tumas business groups also form part of the consortium.

Apart from the procurement process, the Nationalist Party is also questioning in the EU institutions the granting of a €360 million state guarantee to ElectroGas.

The 22-month guarantee is meant as a stop-gap measure until the European Commission gives the go-ahead to the security of supply agreement the government is offering to ElectroGas.

Through the agreement, the government will bind itself to buy electricity from ElectroGas for 18 years.

Opposition leader Simon Busuttil has argued that the Prime Minister gave this loan guarantee purely to save his own skin, as he would have to resign if the government failed to deliver on its promise to build a new power station.

Finance Minister Edward Scicluna has in turn hit out at Dr Busuttil for “brainwashing” people into viewing the loan guarantee as something negative.

“There are certain activities which the private sector would not go into: in economics we call it ‘market failure’. For instance, no one would build a lighthouse or a bridge, because how are they going to collect their dues?

“That’s where government usually steps in, and the old-fashioned model is for the government to step in and built it itself.

“Instead, we are getting the private sector to build it. Therefore there must be some guarantee that the government will be buying the service provided,” Professor Scicluna said in a recent interview with The Malta Independent on Sunday.