The police could be called in to investigate the conclusions of a National Audit Office probe into how €13 million worth of direct orders were approved for the building of the national shooting range in Ta’ Kandja.
Sources close to the ongoing NAO audit told Times of Malta there were indications that public procurement laws had been broken and that the police economic crimes unit might be needed to investigate further.
The probe was honing in on the management of Sport Malta – the government agency responsible for the multimillion-euro project – at the time of the issue of some 25 direct orders, sources said.
Almost all the works involved had been issued to companies without any form of competition, as public procurement rules demand.
“The audit of this massive project will be out soon,” a source said.
“Some people might be surprised as findings clearly indicate that more investigations may be necessary, including of a criminal nature.”
The probe began during the summer and focuses on the methodologies used in the procurement of almost all the services that were required to build the shooting range.
Much of the work had to be issued under direct orders
At the time of the project, Sport Malta was without a CEO. Instead, Chris Bonnet, who, at the time, was an adviser to Parliamentary Secretary Clifton Grima, was made acting CEO.
Questioned on whether he was responsible for all the direct orders awarded for the project, Mr Bonnet, a former Labour mayor of Gżira, had admitted that most of the direct orders were issued under his watch.
“Yes, I ordered some of the direct orders” he said.
A spokesman for Dr Grima had insisted that “all procurement for the Malta national shooting ranges was made in adherence to the public procurement regulations and government procedures”.
A source close to the probe said that “the report will show that not all procedures were followed, even though the Finance Ministry was asked for its green light”.
Originally estimated at €7 million, the shooting range ended up costing twice the amount, the final bill exceeding €14 million.
Just €1 million worth of works were not issued under a direct order and therefore are not part of the investigation.
Although the Malta Shooting Sport Federation had agreed with the government in 2015 on the building of a new shooting range to be in place in time for a 2018 World Cup competition, the government only announced the project in May 2017, during the election campaign. It said much of the work had to be issued under direct orders due to the urgency of the project.
It was inaugurated in 2018 but remains unfinished because parts of the range, meant to cater for a certain type of shooting competition, were never completed.