If nothing had been done about the Maghtab incinerator tender "this would have been a new Vitals", PN shadow ministers Rebekah Borg and Eve Borg Bonello said during a press conference.
The MPs said Malta is "not a normal country", more so when the CEO of Wasteserve is currently charged with involuntary homicide and retained his position, and following serious allegations with the tender in question.
Borg said that last week the PN asked the Auditor General to investigate the incinerator in Maghtab. She said that whilst Wasteserve keeps on insisting that there is nothing wrong, the courts have issued a judgement saying otherwise.
Borg said that on Labour being voted into government, it scrapped all plans initially made by the PN to build an incinerator, said that it would not solve the rubbish problem and commissioned a study on the problem of rubbish costing €1 million before proceeding to export Malta's rubbish. She said that the amount of rubbish kept on growing however, and in 2018 a committee was formed that eventually led to the Prime Minister approving an incinerator.
Borg said that the plan was to have an incinerator in operation by 2023 and to solve the rubbish problem.
Borg said that in 2020 a tender for the incinerator was issued, which ended up with interested businesses ultimately pulling out, whilst in 2022 another tender was issued but fell through since the law courts concluded that the business set to win the tender had a conflict of interest. She questioned how Wasteserve can keep on insisting that there is nothing wrong when the courts condemned it so strongly.
Borg said that during negotiations for the tender it was alleged that Wasteserve's financial offers were revealed prematurely allowing bidders to change their prices to their advantage. She further added that at the moment, the CEO of Wasteserve is in the criminal court, accused of involuntary homicide of an employee in 2022. Wasteserv CEO Richard Bilocca and five other officials have denied accusations of criminal responsibility for a fatal incident at the company's incinerator in Marsa, two years ago.
Borg concluded in saying that Environment Minister Miriam Dalli keeps on showing that she is not fit for purpose. She added that the government is incompetent and nepotist.
Borg Bonello, on her part called the €600 million tender "dirty and tampered with" since it involved "gross" conflicts of interest and quoted from the court's ruling, "Don't muddy the waters you drink from". She said that this is one of the largest tenders issued by the government.
Borg Bonello reiterated Borg's criticism of the CEO of Wasteserve and called for him to step down like Chris Fearne and Edward Scicluna. She said that the PN asked the NAO for the details on the tender, specifically its lack of transparency, lack of confidentiality, how the site was chosen, and the conflict of interest.
Borg Bonello concluded that a single fact remains; a normal country would not be in this situation, but "we are not a normal country." She added that a tender of such calibre should have been shut down and started over with the first doubt.
Government reacts
In response, the Environment Ministry said that the Opposition “is seeking to turn a national project of great importance into a political football instead of being committed to the implementation of this project. Contrary to what the Opposition said, the Court of Appeal's judgment related to the tender did not address the procedure adopted by WasteServ to classify the offers or the scores that were given, which were also confirmed by leading international firms in the field.”
“The Court's decision focused only on perceived conflicts of interest related to the Public Contracts Review Board. So much so that to this day, the documents consisting of 47 box files remain sealed under signatures since they were deposited in Court last March. According to the Court's decision, WasteServ will be restarting the evaluation process among all interested bidders and will select the bidder according to strict and transparent guidelines, that were vetted by leading international consultants in the field,” it said.
PL statement
The Labour Party, in a statement, said that instead of supporting projects to reduce landfills, the PN is focused on finding ways to obstruct this process. "The Opposition is, in fact, insisting that the process should be stopped and scrapped - a step that even the Court did not request. Because this is how the Nationalist Party operates. When they were in government, they are remembered for opening landfills and taking no serious action to even begin waste separation by families and businesses."
"On the other hand, the Labour Government is closing landfills and making bold decisions to increase waste separation, reduce waste in landfills, reuse recyclable waste, and convert organic waste into a resource. At the same time that the Nationalist Party remains against every environmental solution, the Opposition Leader remains completely silent about the blatant conflict of interest of his MP Adrian Delia, who is defending a consortium with a bid for the same project that could cost the country €200 million more," the PL said