A court has issued a provisional warrant stopping the Customs Department from awarding a contract, worth about €400,000, for the sale of scrap metal.
The warrant was issued after DDE Attard Ltd filed an application in the First Hall of the Civil Court against the Customs Department claiming that brass listed in the tender document did not correspond with the type of brass actually being sold.
The scrap metal dealer asked the court to stop the department from processing and adjudicating a tender for the tale quale (as seen) sale of red brass.
The dealer noted that, in the tender document, the department said that interested bidders could see the brass for sale on October 27 and 29.
When a representative went over to view the metal he was not allowed to see the red brass for sale and, instead, was given a small sample, which, DDE Attard Ltd said, turned out to be yellow brass that was worth less than red brass.
Mr Justice Joseph Zammit McKeon temporally upheld the request and put off the matter to November 11.
Lawyer Franco Debono represented the dealer.