Reports of alleged abuse of EU public procurement rules in the provision of multi-million direct orders for cleaning contracts at St Vincent De Paul have reached Brussels in a formal request for an investigation.
Sources in Brussels confirmed that a number of documents claiming abuse were sent anonymously to the President of the European Commission Jean Claude Junker and also to OLAF, the EU’s anti-fraud office.
According to the sources, the documents gave details on how X-Clean Ltd, of Naxxar, was awarded repetitive direct orders by the government even before the company was registered.
READ: St Vincent de Paul cleaning company set up after getting contract of works
The documents also refer to details of €9 million in transactions through direct orders during the past three years, which according to the documents were given abusively and in breach of procurement regulations.
While confirming that the reports have indeed reached the European Commission’s offices, sources close to OLAF said that it was still not known whether the office will commence a full-blown investigation.
“So far we can only confirm that OLAF is aware of these claims and that we are trying to establish the facts. However, it is still too early to say whether OLAF will investigate further,” the sources said.
We are trying to establish the facts
Asked whether OLAF can open an investigation once the sources of the claim are anonymous, the sources confirmed that this can still be done.
“Yes, OLAF investigates independently from the source. Once someone passes information to OLAF, the office is duty bound to start gathering information to establish the facts. It is only at that stage that it is decided whether to step up an investigation or not.”
Despite that in this case no EU funds are directly involved in the procurement of cleaning services at the government’s largest old people’s residence in Luqa, the anonymous report claims that EU procurement rules, which Malta is obliged to follow strictly, were breached by government officials.
The Times of Malta has reported that in 2015, instead of issuing a new public tender for cleaning services at St Vincent De Paul, the Family Affairs Ministry, at the time headed by minister Michael Farrugia, decided to award the cleaning contract to a company from Naxxar, which was registered just a few days before.
Although originally the contract was a temporary solution for a few months, until a new tender was issued, the same contract kept being renewed every six months for more than four years and no new competitive tender was issued.
In the meantime, while the original tender, in place until March 2015, was costing taxpayers less than €100,000 a month for cleaning services, the direct order resulted in surging bills surpassing the €300,000-a-month mark.
Apart for cleaning, X-Clean started billing and receiving payments for a raft of other services, including hairdressers, technicians, secretaries and gardening, among others. Contracts Director General Anthony Cachia said that his office did not approve such services.
At the same time, X-Clean Ltd was also awarded other cleaning jobs through direct orders by the same ministry to provide services at various government residential homes for the elderly across the island.
Following various reports by the Times of Malta, last December the government published a new call for tenders.
ivan.camilleri@timesofmalta.com