Commission expected to investigate alleged Maltese fraud case

The solar panel contractor, Di Natura, was chosen out of a total of 11 other contractors by the San Lawrence council for a tender to offer a 50% refund, paid by government, on solar panels. The 50% discount was however capped at €3,000.

San Lawrenz local council planned to subsidise the 80 applicants in San Lawrence with the €3,000 refund, even though the panels did not cost more than €4,300. According to the government’s scheme, the applicants should be refunded at total of €2,150 as calculated by the 50% refund scheme. Mayor Noel Formosa claimed that while residents would be paying €4,000, the price on the invoice would be marked as €6,000, therefore they would receive a refund of half the price (€3,000).

“This was a marketing scheme, where we chose to pay from our own pockets the extra €2,000,” Godfrey Formosa, Di Natura owner  told l-orizzont, claiming the company would be “sponsoring” a total of €160,000.

The scheme was suspended by the Malta Resources Authority (MRA) last March after claiming the marketing ploy was illegal. The scheme came to an abrupt end when the other 10 contractors realised that there was an abuse in the scheme offered by Di Nautra and brought forward a protest to the MRA to investigated the proposed scheme. On March 30, the authority announced that it will be suspending the scheme.

Mayor Formosa says the council has done nothing wrong and it was the contractor’s responsibility to abide by the law. At the same time, Formosa failed to explain why the board appointed by the same council had not told him that the scheme was illegal and that it could risk the funds given out by the EU.

L-orizzont reported that in 2009, Mayor Noel Formosa and the local council’s secretary had already met up with the contractor, who proposed the scheme so that residents effectively pay just €1,000 on the solar panels thanks to the €3,000 refund.