Concessionaire’s fees were not part of the evaluation criteria leading to the choice of the preferred bidder for the citizenship by investment programme, Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee heard yesterday.
This emerged as the committee was scrutinising the Individual Investor Programme’s contract between the government and Henley and Partners.
Following the approval of the minutes Tonio Fenech (PN), who was chairing the meeting, asked Justice Minister Owen Bonnici to reconsider his position as committee member in view of his links to the selection process.
Mr Fenech acknowledged that Dr Bonnici had already declared his association and the committee did not object to his membership. However, it was becoming clear that he was involved in a “determining” manner.
Dr Bonnici recognised that he was politically responsible for the process and withdrew.
Mr Fenech then expressed his disappointment that the committee only received the request for proposals on services for the design of the citizenship by investment programme (RFP) one hour before the meeting, although this was promised during the previous meeting held on 13 October.
Joe Bannister, Marvin Gaerty and Mario Vella explained their role as members of the evaluation committee of the submissions following the request for proposals.
The evaluation process of the three submissions received consisted of an analysis of the proposals’ completeness and admissibility as well as the proponents’ expertise and experience.
It was becoming clear that he was involved in a determining manner
One proposal was discarded at the first stage while the remaining two scored 66 and 78 points according to a scoreboard, developed by the committee, mirroring the criteria set in the request for proposals. A unanimous evaluation report was submitted.
It transpired that the committee was assisted by Phelim Cavlan, an officer at the Office of the Prime Minister. Mr Cavlan was not involved in the deliberations.
The members of the review committee set up to deliberate on the appeal submitted by the runner up – Reno Borg, Adrian Said and Joshua Zammit – explained that they were informed of their appointment by a letter from the Prime Minister.
They said that they did not hear the parties, since their remit was to see whether the evaluation was conducted in a correct manner. They considered the parties’ written submissions and unanimously agreed on their conclusions.
Mark Farrugia, an officer within the Prime Minister’s private secretariat, provided logistical support to the review committee.