The government spent more than €6.8 million on equipment and services related to COVID-19 between July and December last year, with costs for swabbing and testing kits ballooning as infections increased.

The contract with the heftiest price tag – more than €2.2 million – saw the government purchasing an undisclosed number of rapid test kits at the end of the November. This contract was awarded to E.J. Busuttil Ltd.

The government also forked out nearly €1.2 million for the leasing of beds for patients to be kept in isolation at St Thomas Hospital.

Details of the contracts awarded by the government – both through direct order and the so-called negotiated procedure – were published in the Government Gazette this week. A negotiated procedure allows the government to consult the economic operators of its choice and negotiate the terms of a contract with one or more of them.

The two costliest contracts, worth over €3.3 million together, were awarded through negotiated procedure.

The contracts’ details also provide an insight into the decisions taken by the government, with many of them mirroring the drastic spike in numbers recorded at the start of the last quarter of the year. 

The beefing up of swabbing services, for instance, happened at the time when Malta was dealing with a spike in numbers in October and November, with the contracts revealing the government had to outsource these services to keep up with demand.

And on October 23, as daily new infections reached record highs, the government awarded two contracts through negotiated procedure for such outsourcing. The two contracts, each costing €322,000, were awarded to St Thomas Hospital and St James Hospital.

Nearly €542,000 was spent on “outsourcing of swabbing and rapid testing services for passengers arriving at Malta International Airport”. The contract was awarded to Support Services Ltd at the end of November.

At the time, the list of countries from which arrivals to Malta were required to submit a negative COVID test result on arrival was growing weekly.

The two costliest contracts were awarded through negotiated procedure

A few days later, the government also agreed to pay the same company nearly €157,000 through negotiated procedure for “the provision of carers as swabbers” at the Mater Dei Hospital testing centre.

Three of the directors of Support Services Ltd are catering giant James Barbara and business magnates Silvio Debono and Robert Debono of the DB Group.

A direct order for the supply of gazebo tents for Mater Dei issued to TEC Ltd on September 11 was classified as “urgent”. This contract cost the government more than €54,000.

As more patients started to die from the virus, the government had to increase supplies at the hospital’s mortuary.

At the end of September, a contract for the supply of 10 “extendable coffin trolleys” was awarded to Technoline Ltd.

On top of the contracts awarded through negotiated procedure, the government also handed out a raft of direct orders over the six-month period.

The highest such contract went to pharmaceutical supplies V.J Salomone Pharma for antibody tests. This cost the government €138,000.

A direct order worth €105,000 was awarded to the Richmond Foundation for the running of an emotional support helpline for three months.

The big winners

Three companies were awarded multiple contracts amounting to millions of euros, with E.J. Busuttil Ltd getting two contracts that totalled nearly €3.4 million.

Almost €1.5 million was paid to St Thomas Hospital for two contracts while Associated Equipment was awarded just over half a million euros worth of contracts. 

The government once again made agreements with both Technoline and Princling Ltd, two companies that had made headlines when they were contracted during the first half of 2020.

But this time the contracts were for much lower figures.

Between January and June, medical supplier Technoline had been awarded more than €1.6 million in contracts for COVID-19 equipment despite featuring in a magisterial inquiry into the controversial Vitals Global Healthcare hospitals deal.

During the second half of the year, the supplier was awarded another contract worth €11,699.

And Princling Ltd – owned by zookeeper Anton Cutajar, who had illegally built a zoo that was later sanctioned by the Planning Authority – was also awarded a contract via direct order. It was worth €50,250.

The contract covered the “supply of purchase of consumables and accessories” for the ventilators purchased from Princling Ltd when the outbreak first reached Malta earlier in 2020.

At the time, the government had purchased some 50 ventilators costing around €2.3 million from the company.

A direct order worth €54,083 was awarded to TEC Ltd. Since 2013, the company has been one of the main organisers behind most of Labour’s mass events, supplying equipment such as tents and massive stages.

New cases of infection drop to 40

The decline in new COVID-19 cases was maintained yesterday, with 40 new cases reported as a new rule limiting public gatherings to just two persons came into force.

A man, aged 84, and a woman of 91 died after being diagnosed with the virus, the health department said.

The number of patients who recovered rose to 101, leaving 829 active cases.

The number of coronavirus vaccinations totalled 191,716, of which 53,540 were second jabs.