Evans Building concession thrown into turmoil as watchdog cancels award to Decesare–Weingard consortium – Government defeated

The government has suffered a major setback over the lucrative Evans Building concession in Valletta after the Public Contracts Review Board (PCRB) ruled that the award of the project to a consortium involving the Decesare family and hotelier Mark Weingard was “vitiated” and must be cancelled.

In a landmark decision following an appeal that lasted nearly two years, the procurement watchdog concluded that the process leading to the award was fundamentally flawed because the winning consortium should have been disqualified from the competition.

The consortium, formed by Eden Leisure’s Decesare family and Iniala Hotel owner Mark Weingard and trading as Valletta Luxury Projects (VLP), had originally been declared the preferred bidder for the 65-year concession to redevelop the historic Evans Building and turn it into a hotel.

However, the PCRB found that the consortium’s financial bid contained a fatal error that should have led to its immediate exclusion from the process.

The bid submitted by Valletta Luxury Projects reportedly listed a total concession value of €1.2 million instead of the €78 million expected under the terms of the tender. According to the Board’s ruling, the discrepancy was not a minor clerical mistake but an inadmissible error that rendered the offer non-compliant with the rules of the competition.

Despite this, the consortium had been selected by the government’s evaluation committee overseeing the tender.

Investigations and reporting by The Shift had previously revealed that the VLP consortium was chosen despite concerns about the validity of its financial bid. Sources indicated that the decision to award the concession had been taken under direct instructions from the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM).

The PCRB’s decision effectively cancels the award to the Decesare–Weingard consortium but stops short of scrapping the entire tender process.

Instead, the Board ordered that the bids be reassessed by a newly composed evaluation committee, opening the door for another bidder to take over the project.

The ruling also confirmed that another competitor in the tender, the consortium known as Iconic Hotels Malta – Nobu, will remain disqualified from the competition.

With both Valletta Luxury Projects and Iconic Hotels out of the running, the remaining bidder in contention is Katari Hospitality, a company linked to developer Paul Attard.

Attard, who is widely considered close to Prime Minister Robert Abela, had already filed his own objection before the PCRB challenging the government’s decision to award the concession to Valletta Luxury Projects.

His appeal was submitted by lawyer Ryan Pace, a former partner of the prime minister at the law firm Abela Advocates and a figure who has received several government appointments in recent years.

The PCRB also upheld Katari’s objections and another appeal by the European School of English, part of  Iconic Hotels on excluding VLP and defended by lawyers Adrian Delia, Christian Farrugia and Damien Degiorgio.

The Evans Building tender has been controversial since its launch in 2022.

Even before bids were submitted, industry sources had expressed concerns that the concession was destined for the Decesare family’s Eden Leisure Group.

Those suspicions intensified when the bids were opened, and it emerged that the Decesare–Weingard consortium had submitted a financial offer significantly below the level expected under the tender rules.

Instead of disqualifying the bid, the evaluation committee pressed ahead and eventually announced Valletta Luxury Projects as the winner.

With the PCRB now declaring the award “vitiated”, the future of the prominent Valletta landmark has been thrown into uncertainty.

The PCRB decision can still be appealed in front of the Court.

The Board’s decision is likely to trigger further legal battles, and it may still be challenged before the Court of Appeal.

For now, the ruling represents a significant blow to the government’s handling of one of Malta’s most high-profile public concessions, leaving the Evans Building project mired in controversy and potentially delayed for years.