‘No conflict for Tranter’ – Gatt on Enemalta chief
Matthew Vella Infrastructure, Transport and Communications minister Austin Gatt has refuted claims, made by Labour deputy leader Anglu Farrugia, of conflict of interest in the regard of Enemalta chairman Alex Tranter.
Answering a question in parliament, Gatt said there was no conflict of interest for Tranter, who has business relations with the Vassallo Builders Group, the company involved in the construction of the 200MW extension to the Delimara power station: currently under investigation by the Auditor General.
Farrugia pointed out the relationship – first revealed in MaltaToday – between Tranter, who is chief executive of Care Malta, and Nazzareno Vassallo, who owns the company which runs homes for the elderly.
Vassallo’s construction company has been engaged by the Danish firm BWSC for the construction of the extension to the power station.
Tranter has however already declared that he had absented himself from any decision-making on the tender, once he was made aware that BWSC had chosen the Vassallo Builders Group as their Maltese partners.
But Farrugia asked Gatt whether he was aware that Tranter was “not simply a minor shareholder, but the chief executive of Makeezi Ltd”, another company whose other shareholder is Vassallo.
Gatt answered: “A conflict of interest is only created if the Enemalta chairman had participated in a decision-making process, something which he did not. Consequently, whatever his relationship with Vassallo Builders, there can be never any conflict of interest.”
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