Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/673696
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 1 MAY 2016 4 News MIRIAM DALLI AN entrepreneur involved in the domestic energy sector has con- firmed presenting an LNG proposal to the Nationalist administration, back in 2009. Paul Apap Bologna, director of GEM Holdings – a shareholder in the Electrogas consortium which is building a LNG plant at Delimara – confirmed having made the pro- posal to the government, namely the former prime minister Law- rence Gonzi, and George Pullicino and Austin Gatt as the ministers re- sponsible for energy and resources. Apap Bologna told MaltaToday that "the authorities, at the time, had listened with interest. However there was no follow-up." On Tuesday, Opposition leader Simon Busuttil forwarded to the Auditor General a copy of a pro- posal that was rejected by the previ- ous administration. "The documents indicate that the current power plant specifications were influenced, if not dictated, by the people who had a direct interest in the contract," Busuttil told the Auditor General, who is conduct- ing an investigation into the 2014 contract awarded to Electrogas for the construction of a 200MW LNG plant. "I believe that this flies in the face of good governance in the ad- ministration of public funds, and I urge you to take this document in consideration throughout your in- vestigations of the power station," Busuttil said. The Opposition leader, in parlia- ment, has insisted that this origi- nal proposal indicates that Labour had struck a pre-electoral deal with Electrogas and that its expression of interest for the power station was a sham from the start. Busuttil has however refused to state when and to whom the 2009 presentation was made. Apap Bologna categorically de- nied having struck any deals and insisted that no pre-electoral pres- entations were made to either the Labour or Nationalist party before 2013. "As previously stated, there were no pre-electoral discussions on en- ergy projects with either political party," he told MaltaToday yester- day. "The presentation you are refer- ring to was made to the govern- ment of Malta back in 2009," Apap Bologna said, referring to the docu- ment passed on by Busuttil to the NAO. "At the time we had presented our concept to the Prime Minister and the Ministers responsible for Energy and Resources. As with any other proposal, the authorities, at the time, had listened with interest, however there was no follow-up." Apap Bologna said that, back in 2009, he had been promoting the project together with his uncle and entrepreneur Michael Bianchi. "Eventually we would have ap- proached various investor groups both local and international, how- ever none was on board at the time of the presentation," he added. The presentation, seen by Mal- taToday, described the Maltese investors' group as having been as- sembled and led by Apap Bologna and that it would comprise "a di- verse group of Maltese citizens and prominent business families". The consortium would also in- clude Gasol, International Power plc – today known as Engie Energy International – and Teekay Corpo- ration. The latter is a Vancouver- based shipping and maritime group involved in gas and LNG fleet. Apap Bologna said that their pro- posal back in 2009 was influenced by a document issued by Enemalta and the Ministry for Industry titled, 'Enemalta Corporation, Electricity Generation Plan 2006-2015'. The document had described the switch to natural gas as "an at- tractive alternative". It had also ac- knowledged the presence of third parties in the private sector who "had been evaluating the possibility of an LNG terminal in Malta". Apap Bologna however argued that the 2009 concept was "sig- nificantly different" to the current LNG project. "We were envisaging a much larger power plant – 400MW or larger – which would have not only catered for local demand but would have been used to export energy via an eventual interconnector to Sic- ily. The only similarities were the use of natural gas as a fuel for power generation." In 2014 Electrogas Malta won the bid to build and operate a power plant using LNG to generate elec- tricity, the flagship project for the Labour government, which will be constructed by Siemens, together with SOCAR and Maltese business groups Gasan and Tumas. Entrepreneur: 2009 LNG proposal was made to Gonzi BirdLife decries inaction as more protected birds gunned down TIM DIACONO BIRDLIFE Malta collected two protected birds – a roller and a black-winged stilt – that were shot down in the last few days of the spring hunting season that ended yesterday. BirdLife chief executive Mark Sultana hit out at the government for turning a blind eye to illegali- ties and said that the Prime Min- ister's decision to close last year's season was a mere "gimmick". BirdLife collected the dead roll- er on Friday from a person who found it while walking in a field in Xaghra, Gozo. The black-winged stilt was retrieved later that same day from St Thomas Bay in Mar- sascala, suffering from shotgun injuries. "These two colourful and char- ismatic birds were targeted to end up as trophies in hunters' collections," Sultana said in a statement. "It is clear that the zero tolerance attitude seen last year from the government was only a gimmick. "With the fear of having an early closure of the season dwindling away, the illegalities increased. This proves how much the prob- lem of illegal hunting in Malta is far from solved and that prema- ture comments of a positive na- ture normally end being abused." Sultana warned that hunting il- legalities would go rampant the moment pressure is weakened, and that it is fear of closure of the season – rather than goodwill – that is keeping illegalities under check. "The moment the fear factor is removed, we will go back to ille- gal killing," he said. The spring hunting season for turtle dove and quail was opened this season, despite the former bird being named as a vulner- able species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. As a "conservation meas- ure", hunters were allowed to gun down a total of 5,000 turtle doves – down from previous years' quo- tas of 11,000 birds. "Apart from the fact that the spring hunting season is opened to hunt the turtle dove, whose status has been declared as vulnerable, it also serves as a smokescreen allowing protected birds to be shot at," Sultana said. "There are no better reasons than these two points to declare an end to spring hunting seasons in our country once and for all." Paul Apap Bologna, director of GEM Holdings – a shareholder in the Electrogas consortium which is building a LNG plant at Delimara – said he made the 2009 gas proposal to Lawrence Gonzi, George Pullicino and Austin Gatt