Charles Magro – owner of several events companies that have flourished since 2013 after receiving numerous multi-million euro government direct orders – is set to be awarded a new €1 million contract by the tourism ministry to supply the government with mobile public toilets.

The Shift is informed that Minister Clayton Bartolo issued a new tender in the middle of the electoral campaign calling for quotations from suppliers of mobile toilets and their maintenance in tourist areas for the next three years.

Magro’s companies were in the process of building stages and tents across Malta for Labour’s electoral campaign events at the time, however, he was able to submit two highly detailed bids for the same offer, which, turned out to be the two lowest offers received by the ministry.

Through his lesser known company, Investors Ideas Services Ltd, which he owns with his wife Mariella, Magro tendered to supply all the required toilets and their maintenance for almost €1 million (€942,941).

Magro also used another of his companies, Tec Ltd – the outfit that builds Labour’s mass meeting stages – to post another bid for the same tender, this time submitting a price of €1,136,491.

Questions have been raised about the need for this tender when most of the locations where the mobile toilets are to be supplied are already served by a traditionally built public convenience.

“Instead of investing in the refurbishment and proper maintenance of existing public conveniences, someone at the ministry had this bright idea of putting mobile toilets instead,” tourism ministry sources said. “This idea obviously comes with the need for a new tender, and a new expense, delivered by a private contractor. Very convenient for some.”

The ministry justified the issue of this tender on the premise that “current public conveniences are substandard”.

The list of locations indicated by the tourism ministry to be supplied with mobile toilets includes places like Sirens in St Paul’s Bay and Qui Si Sana in Sliema, where permanent public conveniences were built or refurbished very recently at significant cost.

Also, while the tender states that 14 of such mobile public conveniences would be required, the list of places indicated by the ministry within the documents includes 29 sites. 

A clause in the tender reserves the right of the ministry to order 50% additional public conveniences from the selected supplier “in case the pilot project is a success”. If this clause is activated, the tender’s winner will see profits increase substantially.

In the last few years, Magro and his companies have been regular beneficiaries of direct orders and tenders issued by the Malta Tourism Authority to organise various events.