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maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 26 MARCH 2014 News 5 Government keeps up pressure on contracts awarded to Busuttil's firm part, his predecessor had awarded the company a cost-benefit anal- ysis study for the Zew wieqa wa- terfront, a study which spanned from September 1998 to March 2013. According to Refalo, the study should have amounted to €22,000 – co-financed by the EU – but a variation in the cost ended up costing taxpayers another €10,738. Education minister Evarist Bar- tolo said that in 1999, two direct orders were awarded amounting to Lm1,408. Another contract of €1,212 was awarded in 2008 fol- lowing call for quotations. On his part, finance minister Edward Scicluna said that be- tween 2010 and 2012, Busuttil 's consultancy firm received a total of €24,780, all through direct or- ders. Busuttil reaction Accusing Prime Minister Joseph Muscat of "throwing mud and spinning stories in order to deviate attention," the PN said that Simon Busuttil was only awarded contracts by previous governments in relation to his EU expertise. Muscat's accusations that Op- position leader Simon Busuttil benefitted from a number of di- rect orders under previous Na- tionalist administrations was "showing the low level of politi- cal standards to which the prime minister is able to descend," a PN spokesperson said. In comments to MaltaToday over contracts awarded to Busut- til 's firms, the PN shrugged off Muscat's attempts to "throw mud at Dr Busuttil by using the serv- ices he rendered to the country in the run-up to EU membership", pointing out that it was this proc- ess that allowed Muscat himself to serve as MEP and now as prime minister, a member of the Euro- pean Council, "thanks to these services that Dr Busuttil rendered as a result of this contract". The PN spokesperson explained that the contracts awarded to Bu- suttil 's firm between 1999 and 2004 related to his services ren- dered in the run-up to the 2003 EU referendum when he headed the Malta-EU Information Centre and was a member of Malta's ne- gotiating team. "Whether he was amply com- petent to render this service is a judgement best left to the public, particularly those who voted in favour of EU membership. Suffice it to say, however, that for his part in Malta's EU membership Dr Bu- suttil was awarded membership of the National Order of Merit in December 2003." The award of contracts to Bu- suttil 's consultancy firm has been at the heart of political debates in the past weeks following the lead- ers debate on Xarabank, with the leaders engaged in a row: Joseph Muscat called Busuttil "a liar" while the latter referred to Mus- cat as "a Super One journalist". According to Muscat, Busuttil 's firm had taken some €412,000 in government contracts under the former administration, 25% of which had been direct orders. The Opposition also noted that Busuttil put his legal career aside when he was re-elected to the Eu- ropean Parliament in 2009 and said that questions related to oth- er services rendered by Busuttil 's company "should be directed to the company itself ". PHOTOGRAPHY BY RAY ATTARD Gas plant's clean air technology 'must proceed' – FAA more so when the local community, through their elected representatives, decided in favour of this clean tech- nology." FAA said it had registered its objec- tion on the possible archaeological sensitivity of the site, in the knowl- edge that even important discoveries would not deter the development. "Sadly, the country is once more re- minded that all developments of this magnitude are a foregone conclusion, without any hope of genuine public participation as in this case dismissed by the Prime Minister's intervention informing all that there will be no de- lays or appeals to slow the process." At the start of the MEPA hearing, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat in- formed MEPA chairman Vince Cassar by means of a letter that if the project was approved, it would go ahead even if it was appealed by objectors. 'Convenience should not rank above security' - De Marco on LNG vessel TIM ATTARD MONTALTO NATIONALIST Party deputy leader for parliamentary affairs Mario de Marco yesterday said that the MEPA board should "bear responsibility" for its decision to approve a jetty for the berthing of an LNG tanker in Marsaxlokk Bay, without proper studies like a maritime impact as- sessment had been carried out. De Marco said that the Opposi- tion was not against the switch from heavy fuel oil to natural gas or the reduction of electricity tariffs, but it took issue with the fact that no mari- time impact assessment had been carried out prior to MEPA's vote. "We outlined a number of alternate proposals, with one being the possi- bility of having the tanker anchored outside the bay," he said, citing a sim- ilar case in Livorno, Italy. "The consequences of having the vessel in the bay, however remote, are big," he said. "The lives of people should not be put at risk." Labour wants to build a 215MW power plant whose source of natu- ral gas depends on berthing an LNG tanker inside Marsaxlokk. De Marco yesterday warned prime minister Joseph Muscat that he was being hasty with his plans. "Conven- ience should not rank above secu- rity," he said. Nationalist MP Ryan Callus, the PN's representative on the MEPA board, also took issue with a letter by Muscat to the MEPA chairman Vince Cassar, in which he warned that should objectors appeal the ap- proval of the LNG vessel, the govern- ment would proceed with works. "Although the prime minister is well within his right to send such a letter, I was very surprised at the timing in which the letter was intro- duced. This could have had an influ- ence on the vote. "I would have had no problem had the letter been read out at the conclu- sion of yesterday's meeting but I feel that it was 'unbecoming' to have it read out before the debate had even started," he said. Callus also said that it was clear that political interference was evi- dent in the decision that was taken by MEPA. "No other board member questioned the lack of a maritime impact assessment in what should have been an objective analysis… the decision seemed to have been a fait accompli." On his part, Nationalist MP George Pullicino said that the reason as to why government was moving quick- ly on the project was down to money and for political convenience. Pullicino said it would cost less money to moor the vessel inside the bay, rather than offshore, and that the government was trying to save face after imposing upon itself a two- year deadline for the project;s com- pletion. "MEPA's decision is a step in the dark… the government must assume full responsibility if problems arise. On our part, it would have been ir- responsible of us, as the Opposition, to not bring certain issues to light," he said. Simon Busuttil Artist's impression of the jetty for the LNG project

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