A car leasing company has disputed a tender awarded by Transport Malta to the company linked to alleged kidnapper Christian Borg, claiming that he should have been excluded from the selection process since the operating licences had been suspended.
Davico Limited claimed that the transport authority had suspended Borg’s licence to operate international franchises Goldcar and Rhodium in January 2019 so it should have never permitted Princess Operations Limited to submit an offer for this tender.
The company’s current director and legal representative is Joseph Camezuli, the Labour Party’s former official photographer.
However, he only took over from Borg, 28, who is now listed as company secretary, after the young businessman was arrested and charged in court earlier this year in connection with a botched kidnapping in February.
A court has heard how he and his associates allegedly threatened to torture their victim and rape his sister.
In a judicial protest filed in court, Davico explained it had submitted a bid for the tender issued by TM in 2020 for the leasing of 38 vehicles, 1 cargo van and two self-drive vans. Princess Operations Limited also submitted its offer and classified first while Davico came second.
The tender, to the tune of nearly €250,000, was eventually awarded to Princess Operations in April this year after Davico’s appeals before the Public Contracts Review Board and the Appeals Court were thrown out.
Davico said that TM had suspended the licence for a garage owned by Borg who earlier this month lost an appeal before the Administrative Review Tribunal.
The licence had been suspended after the Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority received “numerous, repeated and extremely serious complaints of malpractices” from clients who have hired a car from Goldcar.
Customers felt “aggrieved, abused, swindled or cheated” by Borg’s car hire and proceeded to file complaints with the Malta Tourism Authority, the Consumer Affairs Division of the MCCAA, the police and Transport Malta.
The authority had told Borg that although it had informed him about the complaints, he did not make any effort to address the situation. Instead, the authorities continued to receive complaints against Goldcar.
Davico insisted that despite knowing about this suspension, Transport Malta did not exclude him from the process and instead proceeded with awarding the tender to Princess Operations.
It said it was “inexplicable and alarming” that the same authority that suspended the company’s licence did not take this into consideration when determining the outcome of the tender.
It, therefore, called on TM, the director of public contracts and the permanent secretary at the Finance Ministry to ensure that the contract is stopped and instead awarded to it as the runner-up.
Lawyer Peter Fenech signed the protest.
Borg had made headlines during the electoral campaign when it emerged that he was a central figure in a suspicious property deal involving prime minister Robert Abela.
The deal, first exposed by Times of Malta, had netted Abela €45,000 but the timeline of events raised suspicions over why he entered a contract to buy a field only to transfer his stake in that contract to Borg just a few months later.
At the time, Abela had been the Planning Authority’s legal advisor and he entered the deal only after permits had been issued to develop the plot.
Borg, an auto dealer, amassed millions of euros worth of properties by his mid-20s, partially paying for some of these in luxury and exotic cars.
Police sources confirm he features in a money-laundering investigation.