Notte Bianca 'not at risk'

The Notte Bianca organisers yesterday gave their assurance that just six events could be in the balance on Saturday, denying there was any risk this annual event would be cancelled.

The Malta Council for Culture and Arts said there may also be slight alterations to the lighting and sound of 30 other locations, if a court granted a request for warrant of prohibitory injunction to be issued against making the light and sound contracts.

The organisers were reacting to the request filed by a consortium of two companies, which was provisionally upheld, over the light and sound tenders for the event. Nexos Lighting and DJS Trading had applied to provide a stage, lighting and sound in 36 different locations.

The council filed their counter-reply yesterday and the final court decision is expected to be taken tomorrow. If it goes in the consortium's favour, six events of the 83 planned might not take place, Notte Bianca art director Peter Busuttil said. This amounted to around 15 per cent of all activities.

The 30 other places affected would still host events but might not have ambience lighting, for example, Mr Busuttil explained. However, there would not be darkness.

Local musicians and bands scheduled to perform in the six venues that risked being scrapped might also be relocated to other places if the court does not uphold the council's counter-reply, Mr Busuttil added.

The allocation of contracts for lights and sound for some of the venues had to be temporarily suspended, pending the outcome of an appeal to the Contracts Department, he said.

In the counter-reply, which was split in two parts, Contracts Director Francis Attard said the tender in question was a departmental one and, as a result, he was not involved in how it was awarded.

Council chairman Adrian Mamo argued that the two companies had until September 14 to submit questions and request clarifications but they failed to do so.

They accepted the clause that incomplete information could exclude them from the contract. They had been requested to file separate quotations but instead filed an umbrella one. As a result, the adjudication board was not in a position to evaluate their application.

They had also failed to appoint a leader to work on their behalf and to submit other documents which had been requested, the council submitted. Following the publication of the tenders' adjudication details, published before the temporary warrant was issued and before the council had received an objection letter from the companies, more calls for quotations were placed.

The council said that by law, three working days had to pass before a decision could be taken on who won the contract and had called for tenders to be placed so as to make the necessary financial projections. No contracts have been concluded and the council had no intention of concluding any before the time was up, it said. The process used to carry out the call for applications was transparent and rigorous.

The council held the companies responsible for any damages that may arise because of the warrant.