Mater Dei ER tender cancelled after sole bidder blows past €80m budget
Bidder CE-BB Projects objects to decision after placing €135.7m offer
An €80 million tender to extend Mater Dei Hospital’s emergency department was cancelled in July after the only bid submitted was dismissed as too expensive.
CE-BB Projects placed the sole bid of €135.7 million to extend the public hospital’s emergency department and build a new psychiatric ward. The bid, which was almost 70% higher than the government’s budgeted estimate, was dismissed as not being economically feasible.
CE-BB Projects, a joint venture between CE Installations Ltd and Bonnici Group, has appealed the decision, claiming no clear grounds for the tender’s cancellation were given.
In an appeal before the public contracts review board, CE-BB Projects submitted that the reasons for the cancellation were vague and unsubstantiated. It argued that tenders should only be cancelled in exceptional circumstances.
Robert Abela ‘announced’ last month that the government would be issuing a tender for the Mater Dei works, without saying that the previous tender, issued last December, had been cancelled.
“We had some difficulties in this tender but I will be clear that this is a commitment to expand the emergency and psychiatric ward at Mater Dei. This is a project that needs to happen,” Abela had said during an interview on ONE TV.
In its reply to CE-BB’s appeal, the health ministry defended the decision to cancel the original tender on budgetary grounds. The ministry said the bid clearly exceeded the tender’s estimated value of €80 million and was, therefore, not acceptable.
It argued that the fact that only one bid was received does not mean it should be accepted at all costs, nor does it place an obligation on the government to engage with the company to clarify the bid.
“The price was not ambiguous – it was simply significantly higher than the estimated contract value. No clarification would have changed this fact,” the ministry’s legal representatives said.
The legal wrangle will likely further delay plans to expand the emergency department. Doctors told Times of Malta in January that the situation at the emergency department is a “disaster” that is well “beyond its breaking point”.