Economy Minister Chris Cardona will not publish a report defending his controversial decision to change the results of a public call for legal services, claiming commercial sensitivity.

Last Monday Dr Cardona said he had no problem making the document available once this was legally possible. However, following an official request by Times of Malta, the ministry changed its mind.

The document underpins a decision taken by Dr Cardona to intervene and change the results of a bid that was being adjudicated by a body headed by the Privatisation Unit. The ministry disagreed with the selection made by the Privatisation Unit on grounds that it gave almost exclusive weight to the financial factor without due consideration of expertise and capacity of the legal firms bidding.

The head of the unit, Emmanuel Ellul, disagreed, arguing that “if another scoring system were adopted, there would be a considerable degree of subjectivity involved because the scores would be awarded, to a large extent, arbitrarily”.

However, the ministry disagreed and re-assigned the bidders, putting a different law firm at the top of the list.

Dr Cardona referred to a technical document, which provides the basis for the selection of legal advisers.

“It follows that the disclosure of this internal document is not possible to safeguard the business affairs of firms competing in the request for proposals and any future government undertakings that they may eventually participate in,” the ministry said.

Dr Cardona justified his actions saying he was not legally bound to have a bid for these legal services and could have had the contract awarded through a direct order.

However, he wanted to have a more transparent process and therefore had a competition.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat also underlined that Dr Cardona could have given a direct order and need not have involved the Privatisation Unit, though he admitted things could have been done better.

A few days after Dr Cardona’s inter-vention in the offer selection process, Mr Ellul presented his resignation, citing health reasons.