The government has found a way to circumvent a troublesome tender for the lease of over 50 new vehicles for use by members of the judiciary.

The government had cancelled the original multimillion-euro tender when members of the judiciary expressed concern over the prospect that their means of transport could be supplied by alleged kidnapper Christian Borg.

The contract has now been awarded through a direct order instead of re-issuing the tender in line with public procurement rules.

The beneficiary of the new €1 million direct order is Go Hire Ltd, a company owned by Gordon Farrugia, who is a business partner of GasanZammit Motors Ltd in another car leasing company.

The vehicles selected are the plug-in hybrid Ford Kuga, which is imported by GasanZammit. Farrugia’s Go Hire Ltd is a shareholder in Direct Vehicle Leasing (Malta Ltd), in which GasanZammit is the majority shareholder.

Asked in Parliament by Opposition MP Karol Aquilina about the new supplier of the judiciary’s vehicles and how they were leased, Justice Minister Jonathan Attard acknowledged it had been done through a summary procedure outside the remit of normal public procurement rules.

While he did not give details on the new direct order’s value, Attard said the contract had to be issued “with urgency” since the original tender was to be cancelled at the eleventh hour and the judiciary would have been left stranded without vehicles.

As part of their conditions, all members of the judiciary are given a fully expensed car and a full-time driver on a 24/7 basis.

The story goes back several months when in 2022, in anticipation of the termination of the leasing car hire contract in place at the time, the government issued a tender calling for the lease of plug-in hybrid cars.

A company connected to Prime Minister Robert Abela and owned by alleged kidnapper Christian Borg, a client of Abela’s private legal practice, had submitted the cheapest offer.

But after informal objections from members of the judiciary, who even threatened to boycott the use of the cars if these were supplied by a man facing serious criminal charges, the government was forced to cancel the tender.

Instead of issuing a new tender, the government chose the direct order route.

According to Attard, Go Hire was the only company in Malta that had the specific type of vehicle that the government was looking for.

It is not known for how long the €1 million direct order is valid, whether the government is contemplating a new long lease tender or if it will keep renewing the direct order periodically.