Transport Malta is abiding by a court decision to award a €250,000 tender to an alleged kidnapper, Prime Minister Robert Abela said on Thursday.

Fielding questions from the media, Abela said a court had confirmed the tender award to Princess Operations, which is owned by alleged kidnapper and suspected money-launderer Christian Borg.

His company this month secured a government contract to supply the government with 41 vehicles.

Abela justified the tender award, saying entities like Transport Malta could not ignore court decisions, as this could lead to “anarchy and a regression in the rule of law”.

Borg, 28, was one of four men charged 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.  

Borg, who is denying the charges, is also a central figure in a suspicious property deal involving prime minister Robert Abela.

Gender quota

On the gender correction mechanism, Abela said the low female representation over the years in parliament was not something the government could ignore.

Abela said the government had the courage to not only speak about the need for reforms but to also implement them.

He said the reform had pushed up the number of women in parliament to 29%, although he acknowledged that this still fell short of the “critical mass” needed.

The reforms however had brought Malta closed to European levels of female representation.

Abela said Labour’s parliamentary group was a testament to how both the number and quality of Labour MPs had improved.

The prime minister said that while fine-tuning could always be done, the mechanism had on the whole worked.

He said the move by PN MP candidate Janice Chetcuti not to contest this week’s casual election, safe in the knowledge she would be elected via the mechanism, could have contributed to negative perceptions about the same mechanism.