A cleaning firm paid millions of euros since 2015 for services at St Vincent De Paul Residence has been assigned similar jobs at other government homes for the elderly, the Times of Malta is informed.

Denis Xuereb, of X-Clean, accompanying Michael Farrugia during a visit to St Vincent De Paul Residence, in Luqa.

Among the homes of the elderly being serviced by X-Clean Ltd, owned by Denis Xuereb, from Naxxar, through direct orders were those in Msida, Mtarfa, Mosta and Floriana, industry sources said.

The sources said that the direct orders were given at the same time the company was engaged by the Family Affairs Ministry to handle St Vincent De Paul Residence. At the time, the ministry fell under the political responsibility of Michael Farrugia, who is now Home Affairs Minister and whose constituency includes Naxxar.

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“All the direct orders are irregular because their duration should not have exceeded six months. Instead of issuing a call for tenders, the government kept renewing the contract every six months, thus retaining the same company,” the sources noted.

The Family Affairs Ministry was asked how X-Clean was selected and how much had it been paid over the last three years but no replies were forthcoming at the time of writing.

The Parliamentary Secretary for Active Ageing, Anthony Agius Decelis also failed to give details on who is providing cleaning services at the government’s homes for the elderly.

Direct orders irregular because their duration should not have exceeded six months

The director of contracts, Anthony Cachia, said neither St Vincent de Paul administrators nor the ministry had been authorised to issue direct order contracts for cleaning services at the homes for the elderly to the company engaged at the Luqa residence.

Confirming his department had given its approval for St Vincent de Paul to issue a direct order to X-Clean for a limited period of time, Mr Cachia pointed out that no other direct orders had been green-lighted.

Prior to 2015, the government used to fork out €88,000 a month for cleaning services by private contractors at the Luqa facility but the sum reached €330,000 a month this year.

The Times of Malta has reported that, apart from cleaning services, X-Clean has also been directed by the residence administration to provide a raft of other services unrelated to cleaning, such as hairdressing, gardening and engineering. According to the residence CEO, Josianne Cutajar, “all necessary approvals were obtained under general procurement regulations”. After three years in the making, the government has now issued a new tender request for cleaning service providers at St Vincent de Paul.