Updated 3.30pm

Three bidders vying to build and operate a planned waste-to-energy plant in Magħtab have submitted their final bids, WasteServ said on Monday.

The company said bids were received from Hitachi Zosen Inova AG – Terna S.A; FCC Medioambiente Internacional S.L.U and Paprec Energies International-BBL Malta. The best and final offers range from €599,659,900 to €781,512,463. 

According to public documents, Paprec Energies submitted the lowest bid, with Hitachi Zosen submitting the highest. FCC Medioambiente's bid came in the middle, at €616 million. 

Paprec had initially submitted a bid of €617 million while Hitachi Zosen originally offered to build the waste-to-energy plant for €984 million. 

The final bids submitted for the project.

Paprec International's bid involves the French waste management company of the same name, working in collaboration with local construction giants Bonnici Bros.

The evaluation process will now commence with WasteServ aiming to enter into a 20-year contract with the recommended bidder before the end of the year. 

The project site has already been excavated and prepared.

"Once the contract with the recommended bidder is signed, it is expected that the contractor starts with the concrete work for the waste bunker for which full development permits have already been obtained," the company said.

Eleven companies had submitted offers to Wasteserv when its plans to build a massive waste management facility were opened to tender in 2022. 

Wasteserv then whittled that list down to five and started negotiations with shortlisted bidders. 

Two of five companies that had originally submitted an offer - Magħtab Ġdid Enerġija Nadifa and SACRY Industrial Operacion y Mantienimento SL - did not submit final bids. Those two companies had submitted the lowest-value bids at the time of shortlisting. 

The protracted tendering process came under scrutiny earlier this year, following reports that the Department of Contracts had published the value of bids submitted by the five shortlisted candidates.

Lawyer and former PN MP Jason Azzopardi was among those to allege impropriety.

"This is a massive scandal," he wrote on Monday after the final offers were made public. 

The waste-to-energy facility (an incinerator) will be processing 192,000 tonnes of non-recyclable waste per year. The waste will be converted into green energy.

This plant, together with a new organic processing plant, a material recovery facility, a skip management facility, and a thermal treatment facility will be allowing Malta to move to a fully circular economy in the waste management field.