‘The miracle of Buġibba square’: over-budget project rushed to completion a few days ahead of elections

The refurbishment of Buġibba square, a project which has been ongoing for five years and went over ten times its original budget, is now being rushed to completion a few days ahead of the general elections.

Progress on the refurbishment project, which cost taxpayers over €10 million and was awarded to a consortium led by contractors Bonnici Brothers – very close to the Prime Minister – suddenly accelerated over the past few days, prompting St Paul Bay local councillor and ADPD leader Sandra Gauci to describe it as “a miracle.”

“After the miracle of five loaves of bread and two fish, we now have the miracle of the workers who appeared at Buġibba square,” Gauci said in a video posted to social media on Sunday.

“Whoever lives here knows that throughout the time this project being carried out, there certainly wasn’t this number of workers present…if there were, it would have been finished a long time ago,” Gauci added.

In March last year, Infrastructure Minister Chris Bonett refused to answer The Shift’s questions about how the refurbishment of a relatively small square cost taxpayers €10.6 million, or ten times the originally budgeted €1.7 million.

The contract was awarded to a consortium named RM Construction Ltd, which comprises three contractors: Bonnici Brothers Ltd, Schembri Infrastructure Ltd, and Asfaltar Ltd.

Though all three contractors have dominated public procurement for major infrastructure projects, Bonnici Brothers Ltd in particular has been in the spotlight due to the company’s close personal affiliation with Prime Minister Robert Abela and the unprecedented €120 million direct order they were awarded just a few days ago.

Despite the fact that RM Construction Ltd’s bid for the refurbishment of Buġibba square was €3 million above the tender’s estimated cost when it was first issued, their sole bid was nonetheless accepted without question.

After years of delays, the square is set for yet another one of Bonett’s numerous, glitzy inaugurations midway through the elections.

“Suddenly, now that we’re going to be inaugurating this project next Tuesday, they are rushing through it, and God knows how this project is going to end up,” Gauci noted in her video, arguing that local councils must not only be kept abreast of project developments but also be given power over how they are executed.

After the project was first announced by disgraced former Tourism Minister Clayton Bartolo in 2021, The Shift had also revealed that the architect commissioned for the designs was former Labour Party deputy leader Daniel Micallef, who has since resigned from politics to focus on his profession.