A €23 million underpass project at the Santa Luċija-Tarxien roundabout was frozen after a legal wrangle erupted over a blunder during the evaluation process, Times of Malta has learnt.
Times of Malta was told that the tender was put on hold following the direct intervention by the director of contracts, Anthony Cachia, a week after it was awarded.
The tender was allocated to RM Construction Ltd on behalf of Infrastructure Malta.
Industry sources said a committee appointed to evaluate the contract “appeared” to have overlooked the fact that the successful bid was not up to the required standards requested in the call.
The director of contracts was informed, among other things, that the selected bidder failed to meet specific requirements, the sources added. He was told, they continued, that a lower grade of concrete was being proposed, thus making a big difference in the overall price of the project, and also that a central wall, considered to be a major aspect of the structure, was missing in the proposal made.
Not composed of the right people having the right expertise
Yet, the government-appointed evaluation committee, chaired by engineer Robert Schembri, still proceeded in allocating the tender. However, a technical expert subsequently pointed out the omissions to the director of contracts who ordered the contract to be frozen, the sources said.
RM Construction Ltd, made up of road-building companies Asfaltar Ltd, Bonnici Brothers Ltd and Schembri Infrastructure Ltd, objected to the contracts director’s decision, arguing their offer should not have been cancelled as it was fully compliant with specifications.
When the Public Contracts Review Board started hearing the appeal, Mr Schembri was asked why the evaluation committee went ahead with the award despite the shortcomings.
The industry sources said Mr Schembri declared his committee relied on declarations made by the bidder with regard to the specifications. The board threw out the appeal and RM Construction is now seeking redress in court, thus delaying the project, the sources remarked.
A spokesman for Infrastructure Malta said the agency “will determine the way forward in this process as soon as the appeals period ends”.
Public Contracts Review Board chairman Anthony Cassar last year warned the government about the quality of appointees sitting on evaluation committees dealing with important contracts.
“We are finding that some problems are caused because evaluation committees deciding on tenders are not composed of the right competent people having the right expertise,” he had said.
Mr Cassar insisted that the government should solve the problem as most of the appeals being filed followed technical deficiencies on the evaluation committee’s part.