Police won’t investigate BWSC contract unless report is filed
Karl Stagno-Navarra
Police Commissioner John Rizzo has said he will not initiate any investigation into the Delimara power station contract awarded to Danish firm BWSC, because “nobody” has filed a report to the police about the matter.
Speaking to MaltaToday, Rizzo said the complainants in the case “rightly sought” the powers entrusted to the Auditor General, whose report found “no hard evidence” of corruption, save for numerous irregularities in the contract award.
“The report suggests that a witness was evasive in his answers, but since when is remaining silent indicative of some crime?” Rizzo said, referring to BWSC middleman Joe Mizzi adding it was a Constitutional right for a suspect or anybody to remain silent when questioned.
Rizzo stressed that in the same way his force was pressured by the media about the delay in introducing legal assistance to suspects prior to interrogations, “the same principle must be applied when one is questioned and invokes his Constitutional right to remain silent and not answer questions.”
Rizzo insisted that the Auditor General felt no need to refer the case to the Police at the end of the inquiry. “Even though the Auditor reports directly to Parliament, there was no recommendation for a criminal investigation to be initiated,” he said.
Last week, Finance Minister Tonio Fenech stressed – when asked if he would ask for a police investigation – that it was not up to the government to take such action.
“Ask the police… I don’t see why I should give (the report) to them myself. The most important statement is that there was no corruption or irregularities,” Fenech said.
Speaking to MaltaToday on Wednesday, Auditor General Anthony C. Mifsud admitted that his office felt “under attack” by the wave of criticism that followed in the wake of his findings on the power station contract, and stressed that “going to the police is completely out of my remit, as my office reports directly to Parliament.”
“We have come under attack but we cannot react,” Mifsud told MaltaToday when asked about what he thinks about the government’s reaction to the inquiry findings.
While Parliament next Monday will discuss a motion tabled by the Opposition on the power station contract, Labour MP Charles Mangion, who chairs the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), has not excluded summoning Mizzi, who would possibly be confronted with other people involved in the whole procurement saga.
Mangion has not excluded asking the PAC to refer the Auditor General’s report for police investigation.
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