Mater Dei €120m direct order: government contradicts its own legal stance

The government is contradicting, and ultimately weakening, its own legal position previously presented before the Public Contracts Review Board, to justify awarding an unprecedented €120 million direct order to a consortium led by Bonnici Brothers, former clients and business partners of Prime Minister Robert Abela.

Documents filed before the Public Contracts Review Board (PCRB), seen by The Shift, show that the government itself had classified the 2024 tender for the Mater Dei Hospital emergency department extension as a “failed process” that did not deliver value for money.

Yet, in a sharp U-turn, the government abandoned its own stated position, a move seemingly led by Prime Minister Robert Abela.

Instead of issuing a fresh competitive tender, as required by both its legal arguments and procurement rules, the government bypassed the process entirely, while still defending its earlier decision to cancel the tender. That cancellation had been justified on the basis that the Bonnici Brothers-led consortium’s bid exceeded the government’s original estimate by €55 million.

Bonnici Brothers are still appealing the cancellation, and the process is still ongoing. Meanwhile, they got a direct order for the same project.

Legal submissions by Camilleri Preziosi Advocates on behalf of the government argue that proceeding with the sole bid received would have placed it in breach of public procurement rules.

The €136 million offer was approximately 70% higher than the government’s €80 million estimate.

“The fact that only one tenderer submitted a tender, and that this tender was circa 70% over the estimated contract value, means that the tender procedure failed to secure effective competition,” the government stated, maintaining that the tender had to be cancelled and redesigned to ensure both competition and value for taxpayers before a new tender was published. This did not happen.

Instead, the process is now being replaced by a €120 million direct order, €40 million higher than the government’s original estimate.

Despite its earlier position, the government has now assigned the contract to CE-BB Projects Ltd, the same consortium whose bid it had rejected as excessive.

The consortium had challenged the cancellation, arguing that the government’s estimates were unrealistic and requesting that the contract be awarded to it. Meanwhile, the original tender remains under appeal and is still officially listed as being at the evaluation stage.

The government has offered no explanation. Nor has it justified the €40 million increase, or clarified how the decision complies with procurement rules, particularly given that EU funds are expected to finance much of the project.

Finance Minister Clyde Caruana and Health Minister Jo Etienne Abela have not replied to questions by The Shift.

Last week, the Opposition intensified its criticism, raising serious concerns about transparency and procurement integrity. However, so far, the PN has not referred the matter to the National Audit Office or Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee.

The case is also fuelling renewed scrutiny over links between the consortium and the Prime Minister. Gilbert Bonnici, managing director of Bonnici Brothers, was previously Abela’s business partner, while the other company in the consortium is owned by a Labour local councillor.