Direct orders and payments amounting to about €5 million were issued by Transport Malta during the second semester last year, Times of Malta is informed.

According to the Finance Ministry, direct orders should be limited and only used for emergency matters, however, the transport regulator made hundreds of payments for the procurement of supplies and services, which, industry sources remarked, could have easily been obtained through a public contract.

Many of the services/supplies were procured through companies or figures connected to the Labour administration, it was noted.

Read: Despite warning, ministry gave €4.5m direct orders in six months

A notice published in The Malta Government Gazette shows that Transport Malta paid lawyer Aron Mifsud Bonnici about €50,000 in legal fees between June and December.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici, who regularly handles legal issues on behalf of the General Workers’ Union and is Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi’s personal lawyer, is receiving tens of thousands of euros in fees and remuneration for serving rendered to various boards of government entities, mostly falling under Dr Mizzi’s political remit.

GWU-owned Paola Estates Ltd, which gets €500,000 a year for leasing premises in Paola to Transport Malta, last year was also paid over €26,000 for work related to the lease of part of the A3 towers, situated opposite the Addolorata Cemetery. The transport watchdog paid the GWU for extra mechanical and engineering works at the premises.

Read: €600,000 in six months: direct orders to ‘friends’

Transport Malta pays over €10,000 a year to Magro Brothers, owners of the Tiġrija Palazz  shopping complex in Victoria for the use of an office.

Labour’s organisational secretary, William Lewis, and his wife, Odette, both former employees of Transport Malta, were given a €38,000 assignment to produce a cost-benefit analysis on the Marsa junction project.

The two architects are often on Transport Malta’s direct orders list, the latest being work related to the Central Link project, in Attard.

Former Nationalist Party journalist Karl Stagno Navarra, now a part-time employee at Labour’s One TV, was paid €21,000 as a media adviser by Transport Malta.

Following Labour’s return to power in 2013, Mr Stagno Navarra had also been employed at Malta Enterprise’s PR office.

No call inviting applications for the post had been made. Festivals Malta, a commercial entity embracing a number of companies that provide services for Labour Party mass activities, received €35,000 from Transport Malta as sponsorship for a “Tomorrowland event”.

The list of direct orders and payments included road contractors, architects, the operator of Malta’s public transport system, PBS, Virtu Ferries and security companies.

Some of TM’s direct order payments

Direct Order Task Value
Bonnici Brothers Road works, Mellieħa €384,560
William and Odette Lewis Cost benefit analyses for Marsa project €38,000
356 Entertainment Group Public awareness campaign €35,400
Aron Mifsud Bonnici Legal fees €50,000
Burmarrad Commercials Car leases  €19,000
Claude Mallia Consultancy – Monaco stand €8,260
Festivals Malta Ltd Tomorrowland Event 2018 €35,400
Frank Muscat Architect services €11,564
Halo Pictures Video clips €5,605
Karl Stagno-Navarra Media consultancy €21,200
Malta Community Chest Fund Donation €15,000
One TV Ads on One Radio €6,136
GWU (Paola Estates) Works at A3 towers €26,354
Sandro Kitcher (One TV) TV adverts €5,000
Tiġrija Developments Ltd Rent of Gozo office €10,552

ivan.camilleri@timesofmalta.com

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