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Julian Manduca
Most of the members on the committee set to shortlist the companies to install new medical waste treating equipment at the Mater Dei hospital were on the committee to decide the last tender intended to replace the St Luke’s hospital incinerator, MaltaToday has learned.
The previous process ended abruptly last year when the companies awarded the previous tender Sarrebico and Sanitec were not able to provide the winning equipment after Sanitec officials ended up in prison facing fraud charges.
Even at the time of the award of the tender a simple search on the internet would have revealed that top Sanitec officials were in serious trouble and further research would have shown, even then, that Sanitec was in no position to supply equipment.
One of the people reappointed to the committee is Dr Michael Borg, the doctor who had visited a Sanitec supplier and prepared a report for the ministry of health recommending Sanitec and in which no other companies or types of equipment were considered.
International tender processes recently came under the magnifying glass after a German ministry for Economy and Labour report suggested that Malta was favouring Italian companies. Most of the allegations were denied by the government which said it was untrue that an Italian company INSO was awarded a tender as some form of compensation for the Italian Financial Protocol.
The German report had said that within Maltese business circles it was being said that German and Dutch companies were refraining from participating in Maltese tender bids.
The Malta government, however, failed to deny one of the most crucial claims levelled both in the German report and by Dutch company Simed that felt cheated out of the tender award. According to both, during the tender process INSO, and INSO alone was allowed to use government resources and change its tender offer, something which is highly irregular in any tender offer. That claim has never been denied by the Malta Government.
It is not known whether the people involved in the process to shortlist the companies bidding for the new incinerator replacement tender are the same as those involved in the process that awarded the tender to INSO. When MaltaToday asked the ministry of health whether that was so, the reply was: “We do not have further comments on the composition of the said committee.” The ministry had previously told MaltaToday that for obvious reasons, the names would not be made public.
Both INSO and Sarrebico and now tendering for the new hospital waste management equipment to be installed at Mater Dei, and the suggestion that the Dutch and the Germans are staying away cannot be entirely true because several German companies are tendering in the new incinerator process.
It has, however, come to light that another tender has been granted to an Italian company. As reported in our sister paper The Malta Financial and Business Times midweek, a tender for a fixed animal waste incinerator has been awarded to Italian company Barbieri and Tarossi. The award would seem not have seen the public light of day and questions sent to the ministry of finance about the tender remained unanswered at the time of going to press.
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