October 16, 2021 was the fourth anniversary of Daphne Caruana Galizia’s brutal assassination. You wouldn’t know if you followed ONE news. She didn’t get a mention. Instead, ONE published groundbreaking news. ‘Company hired to clean St Vincent de Paul (SVPR) is awarded three international certificates’, ONE’s headline ran. That company was X-Clean.
ONE enthused that the company was awarded “three crucial international certificates”. It proudly declared that the company was “the first in the world” to get the certificates. What they were, ONE didn’t say. But ONE explained that “this demonstrated the commitment of the company to improve its processes, its impact on the environment and the health and security of its workers”.
Why was ONE conducting flagrant PR on behalf of a private company? Why was ONE so nakedly promoting the company’s pseudo-achievements?
X-Clean Ltd was awarded a direct order to provide cleaning services at SVPR on April 1, 2015. The company had not even been set up. It was only registered the following day. The direct order was awarded on the instructions of CEO Josianne Cutajar. Dennis Xuereb, the owner, hailed from Naxxar, the district of Minister Michael Farrugia.
Xuereb owned another company, Euro Hygene Ltd. It had been struck off. Xuereb, as director of Euro Hygene , owed €3.5 million in taxes. His company had not filed accounts for years. That didn’t stop Farrugia from awarding Xuereb the massive direct order.
Until then, the monthly cost of cleaning SVPR was €100,000. Once Xuereb took over, the costs spiralled to over €300,000. That direct order was meant to last six months. It was renewed repeatedly and was still active five years later. Within four years, Xuereb earned more than €9 million.
Until 2018, despite the huge turnover, X-Clean failed to submit its accounts. In October 2017, Xuereb was asked to pay €530,000 in unpaid taxes and owed another €3.5 million as director of Euro Hygene Ltd. He had not paid any taxes for the previous eight years. As early as 2013, Court Notice 808 indicated that Xuereb and Euro Hygene owed €896,742 in taxes. He also had outstanding unpaid loans and interest due with HSBC.
In addition to the €300,000 monthly, SVPR administrators were approving additional tens of thousands in extra payments for hairdressers, gardeners and personal secretaries.
Anthony Cachia, the Director of Contracts, was asked to explain how the cleaning costs at SVPR had ballooned. He confirmed that X-Clean was only contracted to provide cleaning services but directed questions to Cutajar. She refused to reply. Parliamentary secretary Anthony Agius Decelis similarly ignored questions for months. He was repeatedly asked who selected Xuereb’s company, on what criteria and whether the arrangement was even legal. Then finance minister Edward Scicluna was asked the same questions. Neither bothered to answer.
Why is ONE promoting the interests of X-Clean?- Kevin Cassar
The NAO passed the buck to the Department of Contracts which passed the questions on to the Ministry of Family and Social Solidarity. Still no answers.
Under public pressure, and after three years of direct orders, a public call was issued in December 2018.
The deadline for submissions was January 31, 2019. The call specified that, at tendering stage, bidders had to provide a copy of certificates issued by the VAT and social security departments indicating no outstanding payments. Xuereb had a problem. X-Clean owed €150,000 in unpaid VAT. It had failed to file accounts since 2015. It could not bid.
On the very last day of submissions, the Department of Contracts issued a clarification note stating that those certificates were no longer required at the tendering stage but would only be requested on signing the contract with the winning bidder. Xuereb was given a breather.
One of his competitors objected. The Public Contracts Review Board decided, on April 1, 2019, that the clarification note should be set aside and was unfair. This, however, meant that the deadline for submission was extended. Xuereb was given time to pay his dues to be eligible.
Until July 19, X-Clean still owed €150,000. On August 9, 2019, Xuereb settled all his debts in a lump sum. The end of the clarification period was extended to August 16, allowing X-Clean to tender for the contract. Unsurprisingly, the Department of Contracts soon notified bidders that it intended to award the €8.7 million contract to X-Clean.
A court letter still showed that X-Clean had outstanding debts. Another competitor, Sani Clean JV, lodged an appeal. The Public Contracts Review Board heard the case. X-Clean was represented by former police commissioner Peter Paul Zammit. X-Clean appeared to have outstanding debt because it had failed to pay court expenses to cancel the court letter.
On May 15, 2020, the board reached its decision. It ordered that the contract should be re-evaluated with different members on the evaluation committee. But X-Clean’s direct orders continued. Xuereb continued to be paid millions.
According to data from the Paradise Papers, X-Clean is owned by Xuereb but its shareholding is in the hands of Crystal Clear Ltd, owned by his daughter, Kristina, and Commercial Cleaners Ltd, owned by his son, Jean Claude, who was also part of the insolvent Euro Hygene.
In his biography, Jean Claude brags that his company is responsible for procurement at Servizzi Malta, the cleaning consortium operating cleaning services at Mater Dei Hospital. He is also general manager of all cleaning operations at Malta International Airport. He also handled cleaning operations at MFSA, the Portomaso residential complex and marina and the Malta Hilton and Portomaso Office Tower.
So why is ONE promoting the interests of X-Clean? Who ordered the award of so many direct orders to Xuereb? Who instructed the Department of Contracts to change the conditions of the multi-million tender on the last day? Who directed the Contracts Department to extend deadlines until X-Clean was eligible?
And where are the police?