The Minister justifies Heritage Malta’s direct order of €1.2m for the garages in Hal Far
Heritage Minister Owen Bonnici justified a direct order issued by Heritage Malta to rent garages in Hal Far to store artefacts last year on the basis that the facilities perfectly meet the agency’s requirements.
In an answer to a parliamentary question from the opposition spokeswoman for culture Julie Zahra, Bonnici also confirmed that their owner was the losing bidder in an expression of interest held in 2014.
Zahra’s question follows a report made by The Shift last August, which had revealed that the CEO of Heritage Malta Noel Zammit signed a direct order in May 2021 to rent five large garages owned by Alfaran Trailers Maintenance and Logistics Services Ltd for approximately €200,000 per year for 6 years, with the possibility of extending the lease. for another two years.
Zammit did not answer when asked why public procurement laws were not followed, and Bonnici’s own answer could not be considered to address this issue satisfactorily, although it provided additional background.
It turns out that Alfaran – through their garages in Ħal Far – were one of 8 bidders who had made an expression of interest in 2014, when Heritage Malta looked for facilities in which to store artefacts.
The winning bidders were another company, Portanier Ltd, which rented a 1,000 sqm warehouse in Qormi.
At that time, Heritage Malta had three other warehouses to store artefacts, but it was necessary to empty them during the next two years, and since the agency needed some 2,000-2,500 sqm of storage space, the Portanier’s facilities alone were inadequate.
But a call for expression of interest in 2016 attracted only one offer, from Sasco Ltd, and this proposed a 2,850sqm warehouse deemed too large for the agency.
Bonnici said that Heritage Malta sought to reach an agreement to dissolve its contract with Portanier, and rent only part of the warehouse with Sascso, but both attempts failed. And discussions with Malta Enterprise and Malta Industrial Parks for a plot in Hal Far in which it can have permanent storage facilities have yet to take place.
It is at this point, added the minister, that Heritage Malta recalled Alfaran’s offer of 2014, and considered the facilities ideal for several reasons, including their location and the presence of an official security employed by the company.
Heritage Malta, he revealed, started by renting two garages in 2016, and started renting a third garage in 2018. The 2021 direct order covering 5 garages, he added, was issued when the lease of the Portanier facility expired in 2021.
The ultimate goal, he said, remained for Heritage Malta to have its own facilities.
Why Heritage Malta chose not to continue a call for tenders – one Alfaran would presumably have expressed interest in it – last year remained unexplained by Bonnici, except that their facilities were considered ideal.
The Shift had offered a more cynical explanation however: the company is owned by the Abela family “of Alfaran”, a prominent family in Hamrun, a key part of the constituency of Bonnici’s predecessor as the minister responsible for Heritage Malta, José Herrera. .