Malta’s main business lobby has reiterated calls for public procurement to be transparent and equitable, days after news emerged that a company linked to an alleged criminal has been granted a €250,000 tender.
The Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry said that the Department of Contracts had a duty to properly vet bidders and ensure full compliance with the law.
Companies that file false fiscal declarations, do not pay their taxes, do not file financial statements, face multiple malpractice reports or are linked to criminal proceedings should all raise red flags for authorities adjudicating bids for public contracts, the Chamber said.
Such operators should be blacklisted or have contracts suspended or withdrawn if necessary, it argued.
“This is an effective way of enforcing compliance and cleaning the market of rogue operators,” it said in a statement on Saturday.
The Chamber has long been calling for public procurement to be mopped up and for tax cheats to be disqualified from bidding for public contracts. Apart from pushing for unqualified bidders to be excluded from tendering processes, the lobby group has also, among other things, called for the government to keep tabs on the performance of successful bidders in achieving milestones stipulated in public contracts.
Its most recent statement comes just two days after Maltese media reported that Princess Operations Ltd. has been awarded a €250,000 tender to supply Transport Malta with low-emission vehicles.
Princess Operations is owned by Christian Borg, who faces kidnapping charges, through a holding company. Borg has been linked to Prime Minister Robert Abela in previous, unrelated deals and is currently being investigated for suspected ties to money laundering, drug money and darkweb transactions.
Speaking on Thursday, Abela justified the Transport Malta tender by saying that an appeals court had ordered that the tender be awarded to Princess Operations.
But in its statement, which made no mention of any specific company or case, the Chamber noted that the courts could only rule on matters raised by rival bidders filing the court actions.
Such bidders have very little visibility on the administrative and technical compliance of other bidders, it noted, which is why the Department of Contracts and contracting authorities had such an important role to play.
“The business community and the public in general has had enough of cowboys running roughshod over good governance and clean business,” it said.
It was now up to the authorities to convince those watching that the government is really serious about its intentions to clean up and raise the bar, it said, adding that “we urgently need to close the credibility gap.”