Mugliett reacts to Sant's allegations on road contracts

Roads Minister Jesmond Mugliett said on Wednesday that Opposition leader Alfred Sant had a duty to explain what he meant exactly when he said last week that most road contracts were being given to his (the minister's) friends.

Speaking in Parliament on the adjournment, Mr Mugliett said that while everyone was his friend, no one was a particular friend and the Labour leader should explain exactly what he meant by that statement.

Mr Mugliett said that one of the reasons why Dr Sant was attacking him was possibly that he was unhappy with this government's progress in the roads sector as the people increasingly appreciated the good work that was being done.

The roads were being built on time and on budget and problems had been minimal, although the Labour press inflated them.

The government was showing good planning at tendering and implementation stages .

Mr Mugliett said that road contracts awarded under the Italian financial protocol had involved selective tendering. Three tenderers were initially selected and another three were introduced at a later stage. The big Maltese contractors were partners of the Italian contractors in this work and all main Maltese contractors were involved as sub-contractors.

The roads built using EU funds included six tenders and all were part of what was known as the "three envelopes" system. The Malta Transport Authority drew up the tender and saw to it that contractors passed the technical evaluation. When they did, the contracts were adjudicated by the Contracts Department without any involvement by his ministry. In all cases, the cheapest bidder was chosen.

It was true that the same contractors were involved in four of six tenders but these had passed the technical evaluation and submitted the lowest bids.

Regarding other tenders awarded between 2004 and 2007, the minister said that five contactors were given work worth Lm400,000 to Lm500,000 , two were awarded contracts having a value of Lm280,000 and four Lm100,000.

One had to keep in mind that there were in Malta only about nine big contractors and around 22 in all. So the spread of contracts was a good one.

Mr Mugliett noted that Dr Sant had also made allegations about his professional office but he would reply to such allegations if they were made outside Parliament when the people involved would be able to institute legal action.