Film festival tender increased by a mysterious €1m after elections

Days before the start of this year’s Mediterrane Film Festival, a self-indulgent and expensive event for government-appointed Film Commissioner Johann Grech, who also served as one of Labour’s electoral campaign organisers, a new procurement anomaly has emerged around an ongoing public tender.

The Shift can reveal that while the sole bid submitted for the organisation of this year’s festival amounted to approximately €3.4 million, the Department of Contracts, headed by Adrian Dalli, is now recommending the award of a contract for €4.4 million – a staggering €1 million unexplained increase over the amount originally quoted by the bidder.

The recommendation is signed by Dalli.

Questions sent by The Shift asking how a tender could be recommended for an amount significantly higher than the price submitted by the bidder remained unanswered.

The unexplained increase continues to raise questions over transparency, procurement practices, and the possible abuse and misappropriation of public funds surrounding the Mediterrane Film Festival, which is already under scrutiny by the National Audit Office and Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee.

The tender, issued during the electoral campaign, has still not been formally adjudicated despite the festival being scheduled to begin within days.

Asked whether the lack of adjudication, days before the start of the festival, raises suspicions that the tender was merely camouflaging an already concluded deal, Dalli, who is responsible for the procurement process, also refused to reply.

Adding to the controversy is the identity of the sole bidder.

The only company to submit an offer was Great Company Ltd, owned by Anton Attard, a former NET TV executive who has since become one of the government’s preferred event organisers, and Mark Grech, better known as ‘il-Guru’.

Industry sources have repeatedly described Great Company as the Film Commissioner’s go-to contractor for large-scale productions, festivals, and promotional events funded through public money.

The company was also entrusted with organising last year’s Mediterrane Film Festival. Procurement records later showed that the contract for the event was formally approved only after the festival had already ended, raising serious questions about compliance with public procurement regulations.

So far, the Film Commissioner has refused to provide a detailed explanation of how the approximately €5 million spent annually on these festivals has been allocated and to whom.

Now, despite that controversy, Greatt appears set to have secured another multi-million-euro contract, this time with an unexplained €1 million increase between the company’s submitted bid and the value being recommended by the Department of Contracts.

The latest developments come just a week after the general elections, during which Johann Grech took an active role in Labour’s expensive electoral campaign.

Sources familiar with the arrangements told The Shift that several contractors and service providers involved in Labour’s electoral campaign expected to benefit from substantial subcontracting work under the festival contract once it is awarded to Greatt Company.

In effect, contractors who were working on Labour’s campaign only days ago are now expected to receive hundreds of thousands of euro through a taxpayer-funded festival managed by one of Labour’s most politically connected public officials.

Further blurring the lines between party campaigning and public expenditure, the same billboard infrastructure used extensively during Labour’s election campaign has now been repurposed to promote the Mediterrane Film Festival.

Billboards across Malta and Gozo that until recently carried Labour’s electoral messaging are now displaying advertisements for this year’s festival, themed ‘Beyond Together’, as Grech once again embarks on a nationwide publicity blitz for his annual event.

The billboards were supposed to be in place only for the electoral campaign and should have been removed by now. It is not yet known whether the Labour Party or the contractor that supplied the party’s billboards “free of charge” (which is still in-kind support that should be accounted for in the support parties receive during elections) is now being paid by the Film Commission.

The Mediterrane Film Festival has become one of the most controversial spending sprees under Grech’s tenure as Film Commissioner.

Previous editions featured lavish hospitality, luxury accommodation, yacht transfers, celebrity appearances, influencers flown to Malta at public expense, and extravagant gala dinners. Yet despite repeated parliamentary questions, Freedom of Information requests, and court proceedings, the full cost of the festival has never been disclosed.