Jason Azzopardi was private lawyer for ABB division but 'no further relation'

ABB Power Services is the sole tenderer for the Malta-Sicily cable.

But the 'allegation' has been refuted as "an obscene lie" by Azzopardi, who told MaltaToday he set up an appointment for another division of the ABB giant - ABB Process Services - in 2006 with Malta Enterprise, in his capacity as a private lawyer

L-orizzont cited a speech by parliamentary secretary Chris Said during the October 2008 inauguration of the ABB Process Services turbocharger station, who stated: “Special thanks go to Parliamentary Secretary for Revenues and Land, Jason Azzopardi, who was instrumental to establish contacts to being this venture to Malta…”

However, Azzopardi says his relations were not with ABB Power Services, the sole firm to have tendered for the €150 million Malta-Sicily cable that will link the island to the European energy grid. It is also a BWSC subcontractor on the €200 million Delimara power station extension, and has also been tied to the notorious Lahmeyer International, a World Bank-blacklisted multinational.

Azzopardi said that Said's inauguration was for another division - ABB Power Services - and is unrelated to the firm he represented. No specific reference was made by the newspaper as to whether Azzopardi – a junior minster in the ministry of finance – was  ‘instrumental’ in his government role, or in his private role as a lawyer. Azzopardi was appointed parliamentary secretary in March 2008.

Credit records also list Azzopardi as a company secretary in two Polidano Bros. firms: Mait Ltd and Eagle Beams, and in another firm with a Polidano shareholding.

Polidano Bros said that in 1999 Azzopardi had requested the respective companies to replace him as company secretary, but the procedural part of this request was overlooked and never completed as required. "For the avoidance of doubt, the lack of completion of this procedure was not due to any action that depended on Hon. Azzopardi," Polidano Bros. said. "As a matter of fact the Group is following up with the Malta Financial Services Authority to complete the respective formalities to ensure that the procedure is duly completed. This is also part of a wider Group re-structuring exercise that is currently underway."

The group said that the companies are no longer operational and that Azzopardi received no remuneration whatsoever from any company controlled by Polidano Group since 1999.

ABB’s is the sole offer being evaluated by the contracts department for the crucial energy interconnector. Six companies - Duc Diving, Viscas, Prysmian, Nexans and Areva, NKT Cables, and ABB - originally placed an expressino of interest; but only ABB bid for the tender after three other shortlisted firms backed out.

News reports point at several corruption cases in which ABB has been involved, among them the scandal-ridden Oil for Food programme, in which companies paid kickbacks to high Iraqi officials in the Saddam Hussein regime, in return for oil contracts. The scandal had tainted other companies, with an interest in Malta, which accepted to pay the kickbacks in return for the lucrative oil contracts.