Latest €10 million Mt Carmel project bites the dust

A €10 million EU-funded project at Mount Carmel Hospital has become the latest casualty of mismanagement at the Health Ministry, as a year-long tendering process, launched in 2024, has now been cancelled.

So far, the Ministry, led by Jo Etienne Abela, has not explained its decision or stated what will happen to the millions from the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Fund, explicitly dedicated to this project.

The tender was born in controversy.

In June 2024, just a few weeks after a ministerial announcement about the closure of Mount Carmel Hospital and the transfer of all patients to new community facilities, the Ministry published a new tender worth €10.2 million to demolish a ward at the mental health facility and rebuild it.

According to the tender’s medical brief, a new 16-bed male ward was planned at Mount Carmel to provide psychiatric care.

Since this tender’s timing appeared to contradict the Minister’s announcement of closing down the mental health hospital, a spokesman had told The Shift that the medical brief published with the tender was an outdated version and had not been updated by the time the new tender document was issued.

He insisted that although the tendering process and the project would proceed, the completed building would eventually serve a new purpose, which at the time was not yet determined.

After the tender deadline closed in September 2024, several offers were submitted. Care Design JV, a consortium consisting of Camray Company Ltd and Architect Frank Muscat from the Doric Studio, presented the lowest bid at just under €10 million.

Now, nearly a year into the evaluation process, the Department of Contracts has suddenly announced its decision to cancel the tender, and bidders now have a few weeks to appeal the decision by paying a €50,000 deposit.

The latest cancellation is part of a concerning trend related to significant health projects.

It follows a similar fate to the expansion of the Emergency Department at Mater Dei Hospital and the construction of new psychiatric care wards to replace Mount Carmel Hospital.

After years of preparation, including designs and tendering processes, the Health Ministry once again opted to cancel the entire project, wasting months of effort and tens of thousands of public funds. At the same time, conditions at Malta’s general hospital continue to worsen.

The Mater Dei project cancellation occurred after the Health Ministry’s tender attracted only one bid, which was nearly double the project’s estimated cost of 80 million.

CE-BB Projects, a partnership between Bonnici Brothers and CE Installations, appealed the Health Ministry’s decision, accusing the government of mismanagement.

While the Ministry defends its valuation process as appropriate, the appeal is likely to lead to further delays before the government can restart the tendering process.

In the meantime, the crisis at Mater Dei’s emergency department continues to grow.