The Labour Party insisted today that Malta would not have lost any funds had the Xlendi road rebuilding works been put off till after the summer.

The party spokesman for Gozo, Anton Refalo, said the funds for the road works were being provided under the 2007-2013 EU budget, and there was a further two year grace period for the funds to be used.

He said that it was misleading for the Ministry of Gozo to argued that the works had to be carried out now after having been delayed by tenders procedures.

This project, Dr Refalo said, had actually been meant to start in 2005 under the 2004-2006 EU budget. Nothing was done at the time, but no funds were lost.

Once the project had been meant to start in 2005, there was no reason for the ministry to have delayed the call for tenders to May 2009.

One could not understand, he said, why the call for tenders for the Ta' Pinu Road was issued before that for Xlendi, when the latter had actually been planned first.

It was also a mystery that only who bidders for the works on those two roads had been approved in the technical evaluation. The two bidders were JPF Joint Venture and Gaudos Joint Venture, both of which included Road Construction Ltd.

GOZO MINISTRY'S REACTION

The Ministry for Gozo said that Dr Refalo was misinformed and EU funding was linked to specific completion schedules.

The mnistry said it had ensured that there were alternative routes to Xlendi.

It insisted that contracts were awarded transparently in line with EU and national procurement rules.

Dr Refalo asked why the Xlendi road works had started now, at the opening of the summer season, when the contractor had been given to the end of March to complete the project.