Enemalta inter-connector tender cancelled due to ‘administrative non-compliance’

The €150 million tender for the inter-connector between Malta and Sicily was cancelled since the ‘sole bidder’ had been found to be “administratively non-compliant” to the conditions made in the tender, Enemalta Corporation has announced in a statement issued late in the afternoon.

23 July 2010, 12:00am
by Charlot Zahra

1 min read

The Corporation explained that “due to the urgency of this project, including the eligibility of European funding, and its National importance”, it had requested the Department of Contracts “to adopt a negotiated procedure with the four short-listed economic operators”.

According to Enemalta, the Contracts’ Department “has approved this request”.

The tender conditions would be reviewed “after consultation with these economic operators”, before moving into the final phase of the process where bidders would be asked to make a best and final offer, Enemalta announced.

MaltaToday has learnt that when the tender closed on 3 September 2009, there had been six bidders: Dutch company DUC Diving on behalf of Special Purpose Vehicle “Malta Interconnector”; Engineering and Techology Limited; Pyrsmian PowerLink; a consortium consisting of Nexans Norway AA, Areva T and D AG; a consortium consisting of NKT Cables GmbH, Pauwels and Royals Boksalis; and the ABB Malta-Sicily Interconnector Consortum.

Originally, the Contract Department had short listed four of these companies, then had started negotiations with ABB Malta-Sicily Interconnector Consortium as preferred bidder.

More from Charlot Zahra

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The last sentence should in the comment above should have read: "An effort should be made NOT to add to this by more accurate reporting worthy of an otherwise good paper."

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I follow your paper regularly but have to say that sometimes reporting is either deliberately or unconsciously misleading in its meaning. In the case of this article, one is given to understand that there was only one bidder for this contract by the phrase " since the SOLE bidder had been found" . Reading on, it is clear that the phrase should have read " since the PREFERRED bidder’ had been found. That is quite a different meaning and on first reading a sole bidder indicates that there is something very wrong in the procurement of this contract. There is enough confusion and allegations about real corruption regarding contracts. An effort should be made to add to this by more accurate reporting worthy of an otherwise good paper.