St Paul’s Bay local councillor Jason Camilleri yesterday resigned from his seat after the council revoked its decision to award him a contract for the supervision of public works.
In a brief meeting yesterday, the council was informed that the Director of Local Government, Carmel Abela, had ordered the decision to be revoked in light of Article 39 of the Local Councils Act.
This instruction came a day after Parliamentary Secretary José Herrera pointed out that, in terms of the law, councillors could not bid for council contracts.
The mayor, Mario Salerno, said Mr Camilleri had assumed responsibility for what had happened and stepped down.
Mr Camilleri’s bid for the supervision of public works in St Paul’s Bay had been the highest one at €17,900. A second offer was of €15,500 and a third was disqualified with no bid bond.
However, Mr Camilleri, a Labour councillor, had won the most points from the adjudicating committee, composed of councillors, when they assessed the bids.
After the tender award was announced at a council meeting on Monday – in spite of concerns raised by other councillors – he had pledged to resign in a month’s time, when the time was up for objections to be submitted.
He had told Times of Malta that before submitting his offer he had sought legal advice and was given the green light.
Yesterday the meeting was informed that Mr Camilleri had withdrawn his tender through a letter he sent to the local council.
A decision was taken to revoke the contract award, following the letter from the Director of Local Government sent on Wednesday.
The contract was instead awarded to the runner-up, and cheapest bid, submitted by Synthesis Management.
Mr Salerno told Times of Malta yesterday that the executive secretary of the council had sent a letter to the department on Tuesday asking for guidelines about the issue.
The mayor added that a note indicating that staff and councillors are not allowed to bid for a tender should be included on the tender template.
Article 39 of the Local Councils Act states that “no Councillor or any Council employee, or any company in which such Councillor or employee has a majority shareholding or controlling interest, shall tender or submit quotations for any works, goods or services or for the transfer of any land for which a call for tenders or quotations has been issued by the Council of which he is such a member or employee”.
None of the PN councillors voted against the award during the meeting on Monday.
Asked why they had abstained, councillor Graziella Galea said they felt they were not given enough information, even when they enquired about whether the procedure was legal. She wrote to the local councils’ Governance Board on Wednesday asking it to investigate the case.