EXCLUSIVE: Eleventh-hour withdrawal clears way for Abela’s €120 million direct order to Bonnici Group

In a dramatic eleventh-hour manoeuvre, the Bonnici Brothers-led joint venture set to receive a controversial €120 million government direct order abruptly withdrew a crucial legal appeal that could have blocked the deal.

The sudden withdrawal, filed just hours before the expiry of the legal objection window tied to the negotiated procedure, effectively removed the final obstacle preventing Prime Minister Robert Abela from handing one of the largest direct orders in Malta’s history to a consortium led by his former business associate Gilbert Bonnici.

Sources informed The Shift that the latest move was coordinated directly through the Office of the Prime Minister to ensure the binding contract could be signed before the electoral campaign concluded.

The controversial agreement concerns the expansion of Mater Dei Hospital’s emergency department and the construction of new mental health wards linked to the long-promised replacement of Mount Carmel Hospital.

The same joint venture, CE-BB Projects Ltd, formed by Bonnici Brothers and CE Installations, had originally challenged the government after an earlier public tender process for the project was cancelled.

That original tender, launched in 2024, attracted only one bidder: the same Bonnici-led consortium, which submitted a €136 million offer, far exceeding the government’s original €80 million estimate.

After the Health Ministry, led by Minister Jo Etienne Abela, cancelled the procurement process due to the inflated price, the consortium filed an appeal with the Public Contracts Review Board, arguing that the government’s financial estimates were unrealistic.

Yet while those proceedings remained pending, the government quietly shifted course,  following direct instructions from the Prime Minister,  and began negotiating a direct award for the same project through a so-called negotiated procedure worth €120 million, €40 million more than the original budget.

Government records continued listing the original tender as “under evaluation” even as closed-door negotiations on the direct order progressed.

Bonnici’s abrupt withdrawal of its own appeal now clears the legal path for the government to conclude the direct award within days.

Last week, Director of Contracts Adrian Dalli quietly published the award notice, triggering a short legal period during which objections could be filed.

However, because the project is being awarded through a direct order rather than a competitive tender, formal challenges were considered unlikely, particularly given the €50,000 deposit required to contest the award.

The Shift is informed that the government now intends to present the agreement as a flagship investment in the restructuring of Malta’s overstretched healthcare infrastructure, as part of its electoral campaign.

The deal is raising alarm among procurement experts and senior officials, particularly because no convincing explanation has been provided as to why the government abandoned a competitive tender in favour of a direct order for a project capable of attracting both local and international bidders.

Finance Minister Clyde Caruana and Health Minister Jo Etienne Abela failed to answer questions about the decision-making process behind the negotiated procedure.

The joint venture benefiting from the award is led by Bonnici Brothers, whose managing director, Gilbert Bonnici, previously partnered with Robert Abela in private property ventures before Abela entered politics.