The Civil Protection Department (CPD) paid over €1 million for seven fire engines that had “technical issues”, the Auditor General has found.
The matter was flagged by the National Audit Office in the report on its audit of 2016 public accounts published this week. A tender for the supply and delivery of six light fire engines and one large-capacity foam carrier was awarded for the sum of €1,163,958 to a foreign company.
The contract specified that 60% of the payment was to be made on delivery, with the remainder to be settled following the commissioning of the equipment and the issuance of the Provisional Acceptance document. The fire engines were delivered to the CPD on December 19, 2016.
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Fire engines delivered to CPD on December 19, 2016
The technical issues, which were not described in the report, were initially noted by two CPD officials during an inspection of the vehicles at the supplier’s premises in November 2016. By the time the NAO report was concluded in mid-September this year, they were yet to be resolved.
The auditors noted that despite the fact that the vehicles were “still not fully operational”, the invoiced amount, except for a €120,000 late penalty, had been paid in full on March 6. In comments on the matter, the NAO said “good governance implies that payments are not to be authorised prior to verification that delivered items are in full compliance with the agreed terms and function properly”.
While the report gave no details about the faults, the CPD told the NAO all the issues, save one, had been resolved by the time the vehicles were delivered to the department. “The issue can be bypassed at any time manually, rendering the fire engines operational and able to respond to emergencies.
“This was taken into consideration by CPD, given that the current fleet’s average age is 20 years old and past its operational lifetime, and therefore CPD had no other option but to accept the said vehicles, since in the event of a major incident CPD could end up without the necessary vehicles.”
In September, while commissioning five fire vehicles, Home Affairs Minister Michael Farrugia said that the department was in the process of replacing its fleet of some 50 vehicles over a six-year period. The replacement programme started in 2014.