XYZ Architecture and Design, co-owned by former Deputy Leader of the Labour Party Daniel Micallef, has been awarded a €350,000 contract without any competition, courtesy of Project Green.
The firm was handpicked to be involved in the ‘greening’ of a square in San Ġwann, a project announced over two years ago but which still lacks a planning permit.
Project Green CEO Joseph Cuschieri, who was forced to resign in disgrace from the MFSA, has now agreed to award this contract to XYZ Architecture and Design for “architectural services”.
In 2023, The Shift reported that Micallef was responsible for the design of the Project Green proposal for San Ġwann, which initially included an underpass that has now been removed.
It remains unclear whether Micallef’s firm has already received separate payments for the various designs produced and modified over the past two years or if the new €350,000 contract will encompass the entire project, including previous work and project management, once the long-anticipated project begins.
This is not the first time Project Green has issued questionable direct orders. One of the first significant initiatives resulted in a contract of €1 million awarded to a Labour Party insider without competition.
The San Ġwann project, announced by Miriam Dalli in 2023, includes plans to build a three-floor underground car park and enhance the greening of Misraħ Lewża and adjacent roads. The Planning Authority has not yet approved the development application submitted by Micallef’s firm in 2023, and an additional application to complete the proposed project has not been submitted.
Established in 2013, shortly after the Labour Party came to power, XYZ Architecture and Design is co-owned by Micallef and two other architects, Daniel Camilleri and Janice Fiorentino. The firm has experienced significant growth, primarily due to a number of government projects acquired through direct orders.
One of its latest projects includes a project of over €10 million refurbishment of Buġibba’s main square – a project initially estimated to cost €1.7 million.
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An entire cabal—starting from the Finance Ministry and extending to anyone with access to the fourth floor, the police, FIAU, FCID, and dare I say, the entire Parliament—appears to be complicit.
Ordinary citizens hoping for a fair share of public contracts are forced to spend hours compiling tender forms and navigating bureaucracy, while the so-called “golden boys” are conveniently handpicked for direct orders.
Perhaps the real problem is not the system itself, but the fact that decent people—those with moral integrity—have chosen not to understand how it operates. They abstain, not out of ignorance, but out of principle, because the system is so deeply immoral that to participate in it feels like a betrayal of their values.
Who says the process was not transparent?! The call explicitly says: number of envelopes 1.
I doubt the full process being fully transparent. possibly out of all the architecture firms on this island, only one was approached….and coincidentally being the one owned by the LP ex CEO? Had it been transparent they would have invited more firms and selected from that list.
a NEGOTIATED PROCEDURE IS ANOTHER PROCESS FOR A DIRECT ORDER, ONLY WITH A HIGHER AMOUNT THAN THAT OF A DIRECT ORDER THRESHOLD.