Parliamentary Secretary Jose Herrera has cancelled a decision taken by the St Julian’s council to award a €13 million public private project to a bidder without issuing a tender.

Following a call for expression of interest, CareMalta, one of the three bidders, was, on August 19, chosen as a strategic partner to the St Julian’s council for the construction of a community home for the elderly, a car park and new council offices.

There was no call for tenders and the other two competitor bidders were not given the right to appeal against the decision of the council. CareMalta, a private elderly care provider is owned by construction magnate Zaren Vassallo.

Dr Herrera said he was alerted by a report in MaltaToday and clarified that he had nothing against the chosen bidder. “I am not attacking the technical credibility of the consortium - it could be the best bidder in the world, but if the procedures followed were not regular than it is unacceptable,” he said.

He said that his ministry was not informed about the procedures at any stage, and he compared the way the bidder was chosen to “a beauty contest”, with the winner being decided upon by the architect of the St Julian’s council.

He said that an order was given to the director general of local government to “halt” the procedure and the councillors were asked to regulate their stand. There was no intention of asking for councillors’ resignations. “Councillors are elected by the people they are not appointed – they have a mandate.”

He stressed that his role as a Parliamentary Secretary responsible for councils was to enforce the law and that by the end of September the Secretariat would be issuing amendments to make the law more clear. “We have to work by the book - I stress that the councillors give the highest level of clean politics,” he said.