The mega €274 million contract awarded by the government to James Caterers and a subsidiary of the db Group to run a still-to-be-built extension at St Vincent de Paul Residence was never contested in front of any appeals board.
Contrary to official government statements, including those issued by the Department of Information and Parliamentary Secretary Anthony Agius Decelis, the tender and “negotiated procedure” used to morph a €60 million tender for meals and a new kitchen into €274 million for the management of a 500-bed extension at the facility was never legally challenged.
Research conducted by Times of Malta shows that the Vassallo Group, owners of the other consortium interested in the bid – CCE Joint Venture – indeed filed an appeal in front of the Public Contracts Review Board to contest the technical evaluation of the original tender at the first stage of proceedings.
In September 2016, the PCRB decided against the Vassallo Group and ordered the resumption of the evaluation process of the tender as stipulated by the call. At that stage, the Group lost the €58,000 fee they had to pay to contest the partial decision.
A month later, the same group took the issue to the Court of Appeal contesting the PCRB decision. The Court of Appeal upheld the decision of PCRB and in February 2017 ordered the evaluation process to continue.
It was only after the continuation of the evaluation process of the tender that a decision was made in April 2017 to award the tender to James Caterers and the db Group subsidiary.
“What the government is stating is not true,” industry sources said. “The appeal lodged by Vassallo Group was only on the technical evaluation – the first part of the process – and not on the award of the tender.
The government is trying to mix things up to make it look as if all procedures were justified
The government is trying to mix things up to make the tender look as if all procedures of the award of the tender were justified. This is not the case.”
“Vassallo Group, for some unknown reason, never contested the final decision of the award. However, this would have also meant another €58,000 fee which they could lose again,” the sources noted.
In its statements, the government has repeatedly claimed that the process of the whole tender was appealed twice. But Times of Malta has established that this was not the case.
The only appeals lodged were in September and October 2016, well before the final decision in April 2017 to award the €60 million contract to the James Caterers and the db group subsidiary.
The government has admitted that it was only after the award of the tender that the winning consortium decided to “upgrade its additional investment” offer proposing to the government to build a 500-bed extension to St Vincent de Paul apart from providing the meals and a new kitchen as originally intended with the tender.
In return, the government accepted to award the consortium a €274 million contract for running the new extension. Thus, a €60 million tender became a €274 million contract signed in November 2017. No planning permit has been issued yet for building the extension.
READ: Finance Ministers gets to know of mega deal through newspaper report
In a statement, the Labour Party defended the decision and pointed the finger at Nationalist MP Mario de Marco, who acted as legal representative to the db Group when the appeals were filed by the Vassallo Group.
In a statement, Dr de Marco said that he had already resigned his brief as db Group lawyer when the decision on the award of the tender was made. Dr de Marco insisted that he had never participated in the negotiations held after the award of the tender such that its final value increased from €60 to €274 million.
In March 2017, when Dr de Marco was PN deputy leader and the db Group was involved in another controversy over the award of the ITS site for just €15 million, the seasoned lawyer resigned his brief to provide legal services to the db Group.
He also publicly expressed his regret that his dual role as politician and lawyer had “upset and angered” people.