Prime Minister Joseph Muscat yesterday avoided passing judgment on Economy Minister Chris Cardona’s personal involvement in changing the classification of a bid to select legal services for the Privatisation Unit.

Dr Muscat said: “The Privatisation Unit should have never ­­­been involved in this process because the minister could have given a direct order.”

However, he conceded things could have been done better.

“The minister and the Government should have come out immediately saying that this was not a tender,” the Prime Minister said.

“I think that, with the passing of time and more experience, things will start being done better.”

With the passing of time and more experience, things will start being done better

The Sunday Times of Malta reported that Dr Cardona intervened personally after a selection committee headed by ex-unit chairman Emmanuel Ellul classified 14 bidders in a report, as he did not agree with how the unit adjudicated the process.

The bid was issued in preparation for a call of an expression of interest for casino licences.

The minister reclassified the bids and ordered the unit to engage a different law firm, which did not feature among the first three in the original report.

Asked to comment yesterday, Dr Muscat stuck firmly to a technical point that this was not a tender and that the minister had every right to give a direct order, as used to happen under the previous administration.

He said he could not understand why the Privatisation Unit was involved in the selection.

“The irony in all this is that if the minister decided to give a direct order, no one would have asked any questions,” Dr Muscat said.

He also insisted that the Privatisation Unit’s report on the winning bidder was “just non-binding advice”.

Mr Ellul, who had chaired the unit since the late 1990s, tendered his resignation on May 13, four days after his unit was ordered to engage the law firm selected by Dr Cardona’s ministry.

He insists his resignation was “purely” for health reasons.