Malta’s long-delayed waste-to-energy project has been pushed into fresh uncertainty after the consortium involving Bonnici Group – previously selected as preferred bidder for the €600 million contract – withdrew its interest, forcing state entity Wasteserv to restart the evaluation process.
Energy Minister Miriam Dalli confirmed in parliament, following a parliamentary question by PN MP Chris Said, that the award, issued in January, had been revoked by Wasteserv four months later. She offered no explanation for the reversal, which follows the consortium’s failure to reconfirm its bid – a development first reported by The Shift.
The French–Maltese consortium, which included France’s Paprec and Bonnici Group, had originally been chosen to deliver the waste-to-energy facility at Magħtab, a project first announced in 2017 and seen as central to Malta’s efforts to curb landfill use.
Under procurement rules, Wasteserv could either hand the contract to the second-ranked bidder, Kanadevia Innova AG (formerly Hitachi Zosen Inova), or restart the tendering process entirely. So far, it has done neither.
Despite repeated government claims, including by Wasteserv CEO Richard Bilocca, that the project had been hampered by politically motivated appeals, Wasteserv has been reconsidering the tender for nearly a year with no final decision in sight.
Insiders told The Shift that the agency is unlikely to award the contract to Kanadevia, which submitted a bid €200 million higher than Paprec–Bonnici’s and had also appealed the original award, triggering its cancellation.
Malta continues to incur EU penalties for excessive landfilling as the country awaits the incinerator, which has been repeatedly derailed by cancellations, appeals and allegations of mismanagement.
The procurement process, relaunched several times over recent years and again in 2023, has twice resulted in provisional awards to the Paprec–Bonnici partnership, in which the Maltese construction group held a 40% stake.
But with the consortium now out of the running, the project’s future has been thrown open again, leaving Malta’s waste strategy in limbo.
Sign up to our newsletter Stay in the know
"*" indicates required fields
Calleja’s manager handed €163,000 direct order for Malta Day at Osaka Expo
€3 million in direct orders in place to tackle illegal moorings after elections
Minister’s canvasser handed €70,000 BCA role, never reported for duty
Bedingfield: details on recruitment of government cleaners ‘sensitive’
Tags
#Bonnici Group
#incinerator
#Maghtab
#Miriam Dalli
#Paprec
#PCRB
#Richard Bilocca
#Wasteserv
Other News
Calleja’s manager handed €163,000 direct order for Malta Day at Osaka Expo
€3 million in direct orders in place to tackle illegal moorings after elections
Minister’s canvasser handed €70,000 BCA role, never reported for duty
Bedingfield: details on recruitment of government cleaners ‘sensitive’
BOV grants Malita a €28 million lifeline loan to restart stalled housing projects
‘We intend to resist until the tide turns’ – NGOs on planning regime
Dodgy people and dodgy deals: Joseph Muscat tied to ‘fake and deeply troubling’ network
Minister deploys her consultant to attack PN energy proposals
Businessman behind Sliema lido land grab to host PL party
€52m freezing order dropped after Christian Borg’s secret tax deal
Tender for third interconnector puts Malta’s energy gap into sharp relief
Too many kickbacks being forced on the bidders?
Kif ma tistax tigihom wahda tajba dal-korrotti.
Wasteserv is badly managed. Dalli cannot do anything. Her hands are tied. No one knows the reason why.
Incineration is not the solution and never is for the country.
Having an incinerator in Malta would be a dream, but I highly doubt that a good one (Malta is small and deserves an excellent one) could be done for that price. Denmark’s Amager Bakke cost slightly less, but also took 10 years, and there was a lot of drama surrounding it. Malta deserves a better one – given its small size. And ideally this is thought of for the future of Malta and its people – not politicized.
There is no cost to benefit advantage with incineration. The cost to keep the incinerator running would out way any beneficial output. And the cost of health even with the best filtration system will be high for those living in its vicinity. There were countries, like Malaysia the cancelled the project even after the contract was signed.
What do you mean waste strategy in limbo? Malta has no real waste strategy. Its a disaster. All you need to do is go onve on top of maghtab and you will see waht an environmental disaster we are creating