Wasteserv to ‘analyse’ court decision on €600m waste plant
Malta’s waste management agency will “analyse” the implications of a court decision to annul the award of a €600 million tender for a waste-to-energy plant.
In a statement, Wasteserv said it will now chart the best way forward for the muchdelayed project.
A spokesperson for the energy ministry added that both the ministry and Wasteserv remain “fully committed to a fully transparent process”.
In comments to Times of Malta, Energy Minister Miriam Dalli said the Court of Appeal focused primarily on the conflict of interest with certain members of the Public Contracts Review Board (PCRB).
She said the process led by Wasteserv included the involvement of international consultants and independent auditors to ensure the process was run well.
“We are looking into the conclusions of the sentence to see how our promise to reach our milestones when it comes to waste service is reached. This is a national project that needs to be addressed. We are looking into this sentence and see the way forward.”
The contract was awarded to a French consortium working in partnership with local firm Bonnici Brothers.
A court struck down the decision after finding that members of the adjudicating panel within the contracts department had a conflict of interest and ordered a new evaluation process takes place.
The appeal was filed by unsuccessful bidders Hitachi.
Members of the tenders evaluation committee and PCRB who dismissed an earlier appeal by Hitachi had a conflict of interest, the court ruled.
Hitachi first appealed before the public contracts review board, pleading that there had been a wrong evaluation of its bid, irregularities in procedure and irregular composition of the evaluation committee.
When the appeal was dismissed, Hitachi took its grievances to the court, again complaining about the composition of the adjudication committee and also arguing that two members of the revisions board, Kenneth Swain and Vincent Micallef, also had a conflict of interest.
The consortium also complained about irregular procedures by the board.