A tender for the supply of wheelchairs to the Central Procurement and Supplies Unit at Mater Dei Hospital was vitiated and abusive, OK Ltd claimed in a judicial protest filed.

The wheelchair supplier filed the judicial act against the Health Ministry’s Central Procurement and Supplies Unit CEO Karl Farrugia, Mater Dei Hospital director of biomedical engineering Chris Attard Montalto, the ministry's permanent secretary and Europharma Ltd., the winning bidder.

In the protest, signed by lawyer Michael Tanti-Dougall, OK Ltd referred to a call for quotations for the supply of an 18-inch wheelchairs issued in 2015.

It argued that although it had issued a quotation which satisfied all the technical criteria specified in the tender call, the contract was ultimately awarded to Europharma Ltd, an inferior bidder.

OK Ltd alleged that the wheelchairs offered by Europharma, were not technically compliant and needed alterations and additional works to be carried out on them.

It claimed that the tendering process was vitiated, if not outright irregular and fraudulent. After Europharma had 'won' the tender, it was instructed to remedy the shortcomings so as to make the wheelchairs fit the criteria specified in the original call.

Such arbitrary and abusive selection was totally against the notion of transparency which was a vital prerequisite in such tendering processes, OK Ltd argued.

It called for the tender to be annulled and held the defendants responsible for the financial damages it suffered.