Controversy rages over Żejtun waste collection

Controversy continued to hound the Żejtun waste collection tender yesterday with the association representing waste collectors asking the local government director general to investigate.

According to the Malta Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises – GRTU, a contractor who bid for the tender that closed last month is the son of a Labour councillor in the town, which the chamber claims goes against a declaration bidders have to make that they are not related to any of the council members.

The GRTU is asking director general Martin Bugelli to investigate this matter and other issues linked with waste collection in Żejtun.

When contacted, Żejtun mayor Joe Attard confirmed that one of the bidders was related to a councillor but insisted everything was done according to law.

“The council cannot prevent anyone from submitting a bid. What counts is how the council behaved. When the tender was adjudicated last Thursday, the councillor in question entered the meeting to register his presence and then left. He did not take part in the decision process,” Mr Attard said.

The mayor would not say which bidder was chosen, adding it would be made official at the next council meeting when the minutes were approved. However, the council was unanimous in its decision, he said.

In its letter to Mr Bugelli, the GRTU claimed that the contractor who is related to the councillor has, since the foundation of the Żejtun council, collected waste on wheels.

In Żejtun, waste collection was divided into two zones with one area having its waste collected door-to-door while the other area was covered by skips.

Mr Attard said that in the latest tender, contractors were also given the opportunity to bid for door-to-door waste collection in the zone that was previously covered by skips.

The crux of the matter lies in the fact that the council wants to pay €233 a day for waste collection services, which the GRTU says is lower than the price paid by the council 10 years ago.

Earlier this summer the council dropped the bidder chosen by tender after the contractor refused to accept the council’s payment on instructions from the GRTU.

The chamber is claiming the council’s rates amount to cheap labour while Mr Attard has accused it of price fixing. The GRTU denies this claim insisting contractors have submitted bids with different prices.

The issue boiled over this summer when the Żejtun council appointed an emergency contractor for €233 per day after it dumped the winning bidder. The GRTU yesterday said it “talked and explained” to the emergency contractor that his decision to accept the council’s price caused repercussions in the whole sector.

However, Mr Attard insisted the GRTU had adopted an uncouth attitude when it pressured the contractor to stop collecting waste from Żejtun.

He also accused the GRTU of withholding money it owed the contractor for his participation in the separated waste collection scheme run by its subsidiary company Green MT.

The GRTU insisted that any payments issued by Green MT “followed standard procedures which are above the norm currently acceptable in this sector”.

“Like the other separated waste scheme in operation, Green MT faced a cash flow problem because the government delayed the publication of a legal notice granting companies an exemption from paying eco-tax. The delays in payments were across the board to all contractors and not just to the Żejtun one,” GRTU director general Vince Farrugia, who is also a director of Green MT, said.

Mr Bugelli now faces a double call for investigation since the council had also passed on the information related to the incident for his consideration.