The Malta Chamber for Small and Medium Enterprises - GRTU has, for the second time, filed an application requesting a court to stop the authorities from adjudicating a tender for the leasing of computers to schools and the civil service.

In a statement yesterday, the GRTU said the court had accepted its request to suspend the tendering process until the hearing of the case that is due tomorrow.

On July 27, the First Hall of the Civil Court had turned down the first request by the GRTU to issue a warrant of prohibitory injunction to stop the authorities from adjudicating the tenders.

The GRTU said that on April 25, the government had issued an invitation to tender for the "leasing of personal computers/laptops" and workstation support services closing on June 6.

The invitation to tender included a bid bond of Lm25,000 and various other conditions that hindered its members from submitting their offer and competing in a free and transparent way, it claimed.

After hearing submissions, on July 27, the court turned down the GRTU's request to issue a warrant of prohibitory injunction.

This was mainly because it did not result, prima facie, that the GRTU had any right that could be protected by the issue of such a warrant.

This meant that the government could proceed with the tendering process and, following the court case, the deadline (that had previously been June 6) had been extended to August 10 at midday.

The GRTU said yesterday that it had filed another application for the issue of a warrant of prohibitory injunction to halt the tendering process claiming that the process was illegal and irregular.

In a statement, Malta Information Technology and Training Services Ltd (MITTS) said the GRTU was trying to halt the proceedings through frivolous arguments.