PN MEP candidate Peter Agius has appealed to European Commission President Ursola Von der Leyen not to keep closing an eye to the Maltese government breaking European public procurement rules.
He said in a statement that he had already previously drawn the European Commission’s attention to breaches of public procurement law regarding the hospitals management concession to Vitals. At the time he was told in reply that there wasn’t sufficient information to proceed, despite the report of the Auditor General which explained the facts in the clearest way possible.
‘The European Commission is being strong in enforcing only certain laws while closing an eye on others’ Agius said in his fresh complaint in the wake of Friday's court sentence annulling the hospitals deal.
The Vitals case made it clear that the Commission had been too complacent on the application of EU public procurement rules in Malta, Agius said.
He said he has written to Von der Leyen insisting that the expenditure by the Maltese government of taxpayers’ money deserved the European Commission’s close attention.
"We’re seeing one instance after another where the Government abuses of and breaks practically every article of the EU Directive 2014/24/EU on Public Procurement but the European Commission doesn’t budge.
"We’ve seen hundreds of direct orders running into millions (when a public tender with three offers is supposed to be called for values of more than €10,000), we’ve seen instances where there is purchase of service followed by purchase of material costing millions, we’ve seen instances of office rentals from friends costing millions every year, we’ve seen private investment in a power station mentioned in the Panama Papers guaranteed by public money (a detail which emerges after contract award) and we have seen cases like Vitals where public procurement law was bypassed through the use of concession to which a penalty of €100 million favouring the sole beneficiary was added through a contract revision."
These, he said, were all cases where European law was being broken and stretched beyond decency.
"Stop closing an eye to lawbreaking in Malta, especially when it comes to laws on expenditure of Maltese taxpayers’ money. The present Government has burdened the Maltese people with debts of more than €9 billion. I hope you act before the present Government takes Malta into the dangerous zone of excessive deficit procedures. The Maltese people expect much more from Europe. Do not disappoint them!" Agius wrote to Von der Leyen.