WasteServ insisted on Thursday that every aspect of the procurement process for Malta’s waste-to-energy facility in Magħtab was properly adjudicated and above board.
It was rebutting claims by consortium Hitachi Zosen Inova AG-Terna S.A. which is appealing the contract award.
After losing out on the multi-million contract, Hitachi Zosen Inova appealed the tender decision.
It had filed a €780 million offer to build and operate the Ecohive waste management facility, and said it believed the tendering process was tainted after bidding information was irregularly made public.
The company also believes that the winning bidder - a consortium led by French waste giants Paprec working in partnership with local firm Bonnici Bros - cannot fulfil the technical requirements at the price it submitted.
Wasteserv awarded the Paprec-Bonnici Bros consortium the contract on the back of a €600 million bid.
Hitachi-Zosen Inova's bid was the highest of three received during the tendering process, with a €616 million bid filed by FCC Medioambiente Internacional SLU falling in between the two.
In a statement on Thursday, WasteServ said that, throughout the process, it had been guided by the best practices in public procurement and principles of good governance to ensure a transparent award.
Wasteserv said that, from the outset, it was assisted by COWI A/S - a world-leading consulting group with extensive experience in the procurement of waste and energy infrastructure - in the carrying out of preliminary market research, the drafting and design of the procurement documentation, the negotiation with bidders, and finally, the evaluation of the bids submitted.
It then went a step further and engaged UK-based consultancy firm Frith Resource Management to audit the entire procurement procedure from the very first stage up to the evaluation of the submitted bids.
In its concluding assessment, Frith Resource Management concurred with WasteServ and said “the procurement has been undertaken in a timely, efficient and equitable manner”, confirming the recommendation to award the multimillion project to Paprec Energies International – BBL Malta, Wasteserv said.
It added that the Paprec Group boasted a revenue of €2.5 billion and employed 13,000 workers across 300 sites, operating in eight countries and managing 32 energy recovery units.
Wasteserv noted that, in its appeal, Hitachi Zosen Inova claimed that its technical proposal should have been given a higher score and that the reasons for it not obtaining higher marks were not sufficiently detailed.
But when it attempted to justify this claim, it put forward “various simplified misrepresentations of the evaluation report and citations” that omitted “the detailed justifications” provided.
Eligibility confirmed at shortlisting stage
WasteServ insisted that the evaluation process had been "solid and fair". It confirmed the score given and said the appellant’s offer would still not have been ranked first, even if its contention that it should have achieved a marginally higher technical score had been correct.
WasteServ said the winning bidder’s eligibility was confirmed months ago when the five participating consortia were shortlisted. It maintained that the winning bidder submitted the required documentation and fulfilled all eligibility requirements.
WasteServ insisted that the winning bidder’s offer was not “modest” as claimed by the appellant, but was actually slightly higher than the officially published estimated contract value of €549 million that was available and accepted by all bidders throughout the process.
As for the argument that the procurement should be cancelled due to procedural irregularities related to the publication of initial tender prices, WasteServ insisted that the published information aided transparency, and competition and did not constitute any irregularity.
It said it was the appellant itself that improved its initial offer the most with a reduction of €202 million from the originally quoted €984 million.