Cleaners coop to sue council

The Public Cleaners Coop Ltd is to sue St Paul's Bay local council over what it claimed as a lack of professionalism by the council in granting a tender for the collection of rubbish in the town, the cooperative's legal adviser, Reno Borg said yesterday.

The cooperative had submitted a tender for the collection of rubbish to St Paul's Bay council quoting Lm41,000 as its annual fee, but the council had approved a tender by the Northern Cleaning Co. Ltd which had quoted a fee of Lm49,990, Dr Borg said.

The contract is renewable every year for a period of three years.

When asked, Dr Borg said that although a council had the right to accept any tender irrespective of the fee quoted, it was duty bound to explain why it accepted a particular tender.

The cooperative was informed on September 27 that its bid was unsuccessful after it had written to the ministers of finance and local government asking them to investigate the award of the tender.

The cooperative employs 150 workers, 40 of whom are paid out of public funds. It has 72 trucks for the collection of rubbish.