The improvement to the Sant’ Antnin recycling plant cost €6 million more than projected, according to a scathing report by the Auditor General on Wasteserv’s adherence to procurement policies.

Work on the Sant’Antnin plant cost 23 per cent more than the contracted amount, and is one the most pronounced cases in the report by the National Audit Office entitled An Analysis of Wasteserv Malta Limited’s Procurement: A Case Study Perspective. The report was tabled in Parliament yesterday.

Due to the large number of contracts awarded by Wasteserv during the period of review (2006 – 2012), the NAO limited its analyses to five case studies of contracts amounting to a total value of €34.2 million.

In all cases reviewed, the NAO found significant variations between contracted amounts and final project costs on Wasteserv contracts awarded.

The construction of a leisure area at the Marsascala Family Park cost 53 per cent more than projected, requiring an additional investment of €600,000. The main audit concern of the contract for the supply and maintenance of play equipment at the park was Wasteserv resorting to a negotiated contract, and the fact that this process involved only one contractor.

Various audit concerns also emerged with respect to the other case studies analysed. The Gozo waste treatment plant pro-ject at Tal-Kus, which was being reviewed by Wasteserv, is already over budget by 23 per cent, according to indications.

In the case studies reviewed, the variation between the waste operator’s estimates and contracted amounts ranged from 42 per cent over-estimation to 15 per cent under-estimation.

“Discrepancies of this magnitude” were attributable to insufficient attention given to sourcing market intelligence, or vast changes made to project scope or design, the NAO said. “Despite the justifications put forward by Wasteserv, NAO deemed it unacceptable for Wasteserv and any other contacting authority to resort to such a level of variations and deviation from the original tender estimate and contract value, as was the case with respect to these projects,” the Auditor said.

Wasteserv’s failure to ensure robust project planning for the Sant’ Antnin plant conditioned the Department of Contract’s vetting process, forcing its endorsement to avoid jeopardising the project’s funding and implementation, the report revealed.

In addition to the five case studies, NAO reviewed the appeals lodged by third parties with the Public Contracts Review Board (PCRB) in relation to Wasteserv contracts during the period 2011-2012. Out of the 15 appeals lodged against the waste operator during this period, 10 of the objections were upheld.

“Most notable were instances where the contract was awarded to a non-compliant bidder, the award of a contact despite ambiguity in tender instructions, a lack of adherence to the stipulated evaluation criteria, and a case where an appellant had to lodge three appeals with respect to the same contract,” the NAO said.

This situation left much to be desired, particularly when one considered the process of review that such procurement is subjected to, according to the NAO.

Under the period reviewed in the report, Wasteserv fell under the responsibility of Resources Minister George Pullicino.