The cheapest and the best

As long as I can remember the motto of the Contracts Committee dealing in tenders was always to choose the cheapest and the best.

Dealing in gas cylinders since their introduction in Malta and knowing that these are pressurised vessels kept in households, I always combated this attitude and through this incident, at long last, I have been proved right.

In the article of September 17, entitled Some Gas Cylinders Below EU Standards, it was quoted that cylinders had to be modified to meet specifications. This means that the tender was not according to specifications. This then should not even have been considered, not only by the selected three employees, now suspended, but also by the corporation's permanent committee on tenders, Enemalta's board of directors and the Contracts Committee who were responsible for the award.

Are not these bodies aware that if a manufacturer does not submit the required specifications in his tender documents, wherein he knows that he is competing with others, he is not capable of carrying out any modifications after the award? Has anybody investigated who this manufacturer's customers are? Whether this manufacturer supplies other EU countries? Has anyone gone through past adjudication reports before awarding this tender?

To award a tender for gas cylinders which was not to specifications, accept some modifications, not even all, accept a condition that the quality of the cylinders is improved, is a gross irresponsibility not only of the three employees who just recommended but also of the other bodies, namely Enemalta's permanent committee on tenders, Enemalta's board of directors and the Contracts Committee who awarded this tender and should now answer for the shortage of a domestic supply.