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maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 3 SEPTEMBER 2014 3 News Government after political, technical and commercial responsibility Tranter arraignment belies flawed investigations over oil procurement scandal CONTINUES FROM PAGE 1 Construction work on Mater Dei Hospital started in October 1995 and was completed in 2007 by the Swedish firm Skanska at a cost of close to €600 million. The Labour government yester- day said it would be asking for re- sponsibility to be shouldered, be it political, technical or commercial. The Nationalist Party is however being very cautious in insisting that the onus is on the technical people who took the technical de- cisions during the construction of the state-of-the-art hospital. "I think that political responsibil- ity is about ensuring that obliga- tions of contractors and architects are listed in the contracts and that one also ensures that these con- tractual obligations are carried out," Galea said. Asked whether he was aware of any loopholes that may emerge in a deeper examination of the con- tracts, Galea said Maltese laws on construction already provide for responsibility to be shouldered by contractors and architects: "Such matters are regulated by the same contracts." He went on to add that the origi- nal design of the hospital was changed in 1996, with the change in government. Under the Alfred Sant administration, the plans of the original design were changed, doubling the number of hospital beds. Contacted by MaltaToday, Ed- vard Lind, Skanska's head of media relations, said the company didn't know much about the recent de- velopment, other than what was reported in the media. "No one has contacted us and we know far too little to conduct any investigations of our own. Moreo- ver, there were other parties in- volved and we don't exactly know what the problems are and in which areas," Lind said. Board of inquiry to analyse criminal, civil liabilities The government will be setting up an external board of inquiry to establish the facts and timeline of events. The board will be analysing crim- inal and civil liabilities resulting from the new development as well as cooperating and passing on any relevant information to the Police. Technical experts will be appoint- ed. "This is part of the government's work to establish the facts of what could have occurred in the past during the building of the Accident and Emergency section at Mater Dei Hospital," the Ministry for Health said. "The government will also be ask- ing for responsibility to be shoul- dered, be it political, technical or commercial." A site survey of the Emergency Department and analysis of the whole hospital will be carried out and discussions are already under- way to appoint a foreign company specialising in the sector. The government said works to identify a new site are already un- derway as not to lose any EU funds allocated for the construction of new wards. "The government will continue keeping both the public and un- ions informed of the situation. The security of patients and workers is of utmost priority and both Health Minister Konrad Mizzi and parlia- mentary secretary Chris Fearne are committed to take responsible de- cisions based on information being collected." PN calls for parliamentary probe The Nationalist Party has now called for a parliamentary probe, insisting that contractors and ar- chitects had to answer to the "alle- gations reported in the media and supported by the government". In a letter signed by MPs Claudio Grech and Michael Gonzi, the PN asked chairman and Labour MP Etienne Grech to urgently convene a meeting of the permanent health committee within parliament to verify the veracity of the allega- tions. "We do not yet know whether there are problems with the struc- ture itself or whether it simply can- not bear the weight of additional structures built over it," the MPs said, adding that the accident and emergency departments were not originally designed to sustain the pressure of additional buildings built over them. "This level of uncertainty can re- duce the trust of the patients who require the services of these de- partments and create additional stress for the hospital workers." Talking to MaltaToday, Grech, the health shadow minister, said the serious allegations merited an urgent investigation by the health committee too, especially since an average of 350 patients visit the A&E department every day. While insisting that every in- dividual who was in one way or another involved in the construc- tion of the hospital should appear before the committee, Grech said one had to first establish the facts before turning to political respon- sibility. "It first must be established whether the A&E department was built to support additional f loors or whether the structure itself is faulty. There are persons who de- signed and certified the building and there are those who took the legal responsibility of the buildings themselves. "All facts must be established: people were paid to certify the building and now they must appear before the committee to explain these tests." Grech insisted that raising allega- tions or shedding doubts could cre- ate discomfort among patients and workers at Mater Dei. "Even contractors have a respon- sibility to shoulder and I won't reach any conclusions based on sound bites or a story that appears in a newspaper," Grech said when asked who should shoulder politi- cal responsibility. "Our political responsibility is to address these allegations and we now await for all facts to be es- tablished. But one cannot jump to conclusions without having heard all versions." Technical people must answer In comments to the Times of Malta, former finance minister To- nio Fenech and former health min- ister Joe Cassar gave very contrast- ing comments on the matter. While Fenech said he was not completely surprised by the news, Cassar said he was. Fenech argued that the structures were never de- signed to carry such loads and Skanska had refused to build be- yond two additional f loors for safe- ty reasons. According to Fenech, it was for this reason that the helipad was not built on the hospital's roof. Cassar, on the other hand, said the results of the stress tests on the department's columns surprised him since the project to construct additional wards was rolled out on his watch. Asked why the Nationalist admin- istration had rolled out the project if he was aware that the structures were never designed to carry such a load, Fenech said technical people should be answering the questions. "I was appointed Minister in 2005, years after the building was constructed, particularly the sec- tion in question which was built in 1996 when I was not even in politics. Therefore, any questions related to the issue in discussion need to be addressed to the technical people who took the decisions during the planning and construction stages of the building," Fenech said. "The PN has asked for an offi- cial enquiry and also scrutiny by the Parliamentary Committee for Health, where we need to be sure that there is no risk for patients and to determine the facts of what de- cisions were taken and by whom. I stand by this position and look for- ward to see results." FORMER Enemalta chairman Alex Tranter is expected to be arraigned in court in the coming weeks, but the police charges are unrelated to the wide-ranging Enemalta oil pro- curement scandal. As reported by MaltaToday in May, Tranter came under investi- gation over the alleged misuse of funds at Enemalta and is expected to face charges of misappropriation of money. The most noteworthy investiga- tion was carried out on an exor- bitant expenditure spree during foreign travel – with the expenses having been covered by Tranter's Enemalta credit card. Tranter, appointed chairman of the state utility by Nationalist min- ister Austin Gatt in 2005, was also subject to a parallel investigation by the Enemalta internal audit office. Investigators focused on a sizeable chunk of expenditure that is "clearly unrelated to Enemalta work". While the police worked on au- dit work carried out by Enemalta's internal office, MaltaToday is in- formed that matters of concern being f lagged were the use of three cars for his private use. Police investigations on Tranter f lagged a prof ligate preference for luxury hotels across Europe and the US – one of the hotels was said to have cost €1,500 in total expenses for the day – as well as his other expensive restaurant meals charged to Enemalta. In August, pardoned oil trader George Farrugia admitted in court that he paid Lm40,000 (€93,000) in cash commissions to former En- emalta officials Alfred Mallia and Tarcisio Mifsud. Farrugia, the lubricants importer who was granted a presidential pardon to turn State's evidence on a bribery investigation, was sum- monsed to testify in the compila- tion of evidence against Enemalta's former petroleum Chief Alfred Mallia who, along with Enemalta financial controller Tarcisio Mif- sud and five other men, is facing corruption charges in connection with kickbacks and commissions they are alleged to have received from Farrugia for the supply of oil to Enemalta. Moreover, Tranter's predeces- sor, Tancred Tabone, was last year charged with corruption and mon- ey laundering. However, despite heading the company between 2005 and 2010 and chairing Enemalta's Fuel Pro- curement Committee (FPC) be- tween 2008 and March 2010 Trant- er has so far escaped charges over the oil procurement scandal. Under Tranter's tenure, Enemalta awarded 16 tenders, more than un- der any other chairman, to TOTSA and Trafigura, two oil firms asso- ciated with George Farrugia, and which to this day remain blacklist- ed by Enemalta. Following MaltaToday's revelation on the oil scandal, the Auditor Gen- eral released a damning report f lag- ging serious shortcomings in the accountability of the way fuel was purchased by Enemalta between 2008 and 2011. The report triggered the police in- vestigation, which is still ongoing. In July, the former chairman of Enemalta's fuel procurement advi- sory committee, Joseph Falzon, told the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that Tranter had a lot to answer for and owed the country an apology for purchasing oil and hedging fuel and currency for billions of dollars without ob- taining quotations and keeping minutes. "As chairman, Tranter was pur - chasing $1.5 billion for five years and I cannot understand how they were purchasing and hedging fuel without quotes. You should ask Tranter about this. These persons owe an apology to the people. How do we know whether these were the cheapest bids when there are no minutes and quotations? You should also ask him whether any commis- sions were paid on bank loans and other purchasing agreements," Fal- zon had told the PAC members. Tranter was chairman of Enemal- ta during the time the controversial decision was taken to choose Dan- ish firm BWSC for the supply of new turbines for an extension to the Delimara power station. His conf lict of interest – he was a business partner of BWSC's local agent Nazzareno Vassallo, of Vas- sallo Builders Group – was ignored by the investments ministry at the time. Tranter however did not at- tend board meetings discussing the BWSC tender. Throughout his Enemalta chair- manship, Tranter was a director of Vassallo Builders subsidiaries Care- malta, LBM Breweries and Vassallo Joiners, and a co-shareholder in software company Makeezi with Vassallo Builders itself. Tranter resigned as chairman in February 2010 when finance minis- ter Tonio Fenech took over Enemal- ta: MaltaToday had then revealed Tranter was a director of Sunray Malta, a company sold to US solar power giant SunPower for €200 million and which was in partner- ship with Vassallo Builders Group in an expression of interest to pro- vide the government with 75,000 square metres of solar panels. Tranter returned to the public eye as a witness in the Public Accounts Committee hearings on the pro- curement of oil supplies by Enemal- ta, held shortly after MaltaToday broke the story of kickbacks paid on the supply of oil consignments to Enemalta. When asked about the Auditor General's report that f lagged se- rious shortcomings on fuel pro- curement during his time, Tranter admitted that there was cause for concern on the findings. Tranter has so far escaped charges over oil procurement