A request by entrepreneur Anglu Xuereb to stop the tendering procedures for the construction of visitor infrastructure and landscaping and restoration works at the St Paul's Catacombs Heritage Park in Rabat has been temporarily thrown out until the Court starts to consider it on Monday.
Mr Xuereb asked for the procedures halted until the conclusion of a police investigation into alleged threats to him and his son via SMSes.
The messages referred to the murder of Mr Xuereb's son-in-law on New Year's Day and warned Mr Xuereb and his son that if they believed they could pay their way through the murder investigations, they should forget it. Mr Xuereb was asked to liquidate his construction companies and forget all about the sector.
Mr Xuereb made his request to the Courts in an application for a warrant of prohibitory injunction against the Public Contracts Revision Board, the director of contracts, the chairman of Heritage Malta, and the tourism and finance ministers.
Mr Xuereb is the lead partner, on behalf of AX Construction Ltd, in FortRes Joint Venture and The Constructors Ltd.
FortRes had submitted a tender for the works after it had won a number of tenders in connection with the restoration of fortifications in Valletta and Vittoriosa. The company had submitted the cheapest bid for the Rabat works, for which there was only one other competing company – Vassallo Builders Ltd.
He claimed that although his consortium's bid was the cheapest, it received a letter from the Department of Contracts in August 2011, informing it that it did not qualify and that if they wanted to appeal the decision, it should deposit €19,900 with their appeal. Mr Xuereb said he submitted his appeal and the money requested.
In October, the Appeal's Board confirmed to the consortium that the disqualification had been illegal.
On Febraury 9, Mr Xuereb and his son Richard received the 'cruel and insensitive' SMSes, which showed a clear connection between his business and the public contracts they were getting.
The messages mentioned the director of contracts and the minister responsible for Heritage Malta.
Mr Xuereb said he passed on the messages to the police, who were investigating them and it seemed they suspected that the messages could have come from someone within Heritage Malta.
This, he said, showed there was a serious risk that the whole tendering process was illegal.
Mr Xuereb said that on March 9, he received the second letter from the director of contracts in which the consortium was informed that its tender was disqualified for technical reasons.
It was again given the opportunity to redeposit €19,900 and appeal.
Mr Xuereb claimed in his court application that the fact that the consortium was being asked to deposit another substantial amount when there was a police investigation underway and the possibility that there was a connection between the threats to him and his family and the entity which disqualified him from the tender was unfair.