Bonnici gets new €3 million direct order at Ħal Far while drag strip remains incomplete

Infrastructure Malta has issued a new €3 million direct order to Bonnici Brothers to upgrade, extend and resurface the karting track at Ħal Far, even as the first phase of the neighbouring quarter-mile drag racing facility remains unfinished and many months behind schedule, The Shift can reveal.

According to the latest announced government deadline, the drag strip was meant to be completed by December 2025. However, more than eight months later, questions remain about when it will be ready for racing.

Now, the karting award adds another multimillion-euro contract to the government’s wider motorsport project before its first phase has been delivered.

The Shift is informed that Infrastructure Malta chief executive Steve Ellul signed the €3 million direct order. It is not known why the agency chose to award the karting works without an open, competitive tender. No emergency requiring a direct award has been identified.

The Shift sent questions to Ellul asking him to confirm the contract, explain the grounds for using a direct order and say whether other contractors had an opportunity to compete for the work. No response was received.

The beneficiary, Bonnici Brothers, has longstanding links to Prime Minister Robert Abela.

Before becoming prime minister, Abela served as a lawyer for the group. He and his wife also entered a property development venture in Iklin with Gilbert Bonnici, the group’s managing director.

Apart from receiving a raft of direct orders since Robert Abela took over at Castille, Bonnici Brothers were also awarded a €120 million direct order, described as irregular, in connection with an extension to Mater Dei’s emergency department. The contract was signed just before the elections on the instructions of Robert Abela. The PN opposition, except for MP Adrian Delia, did not raise any objections to the alleged breach of procurement rules.

The karting award to the prime minister’s ‘friends’ follows another contested direct order on the same project.

In 2025, Infrastructure Malta awarded Elbros Construction the contract to reconstruct the quarter-mile strip.

The Shift reported in January that the direct order was worth €7 million and was issued while Elbros was also building Abela’s private villa in Żejtun.

Meanwhile, the National Audit Office is still examining claimed irregularities in the Elbros award following a request for an investigation by ADPD. No conclusion from that examination has been announced.

Delivery of the drag strip has also come under scrutiny.

In February, The Shift reported that sections of newly laid concrete were being removed and redone after defects emerged. That month, the secretary general of the Malta Drag Racing Association estimated that only around 40% of the work had been completed.

So far, the drag strip remains incomplete.