Auditor’s report on minister’s re-ranking confirms political interference

Nationalist MPs said a report by the Auditor General on a legal services contract issued by the ministry for the economy, confirmed the political interference and lack of transparency of the government when Chris Cardona intervened in the evaluation process on a Privatisation Unit expression of interest.

Deputy leader for parliamentary affairs Mario de Marco and Nationalist MP Kristy Debono said the NAO conclusions clearly showed that Cardona had "placed himself above the law, going against all Labour's promises of transparency and accountability."

"Of concern are the Auditor General's comments on the number of serious shortcomings in the administrative process, a confirmation of the government's strategic error in brushing aside civil servants with experience and instead involve people from the party's inner core," the MPs said.

"It is shameful that the government is interfering in legal and judicial procedures, as was the case in the smart meter investigation, in which the police did not investigate those who bribed Enemalta officials. This only undermines the people's faith in our institutions."

The NAO report censured the minister for the economy Chris Cardona and parliamentary secretary Edward Zammit Lewis for re-ranking firms which bid for a contract to provide legal services for the granting of concessions for the operation of casinos.

The re-ranking was made after the original ranking was made by an Evaluation Committee. The report concluded that the "ranking process as carried out by the Evaluation Committee was not deemed acceptable" and the re-ranking process "was carried out directly" by Cardona and Zammit Lewis.  

The NAO report, carried out that the request of the Opposition MPs, added that "this re-ranking detracted from the process's overall level of transparency."

Cardona was last year accused of having instructed the Privatisation Unit (PU) on which legal firm to choose in a recent competitive process for legal consultancy in the pre-drafting, adjudication, negotiations and final agreements of an expression of interest for the granting of two new casino licences.

In July, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said that the PU should not have been involved in the classifying of a company to provide legal services, when this was an expression of interest.

The NAO said that it was impossible to establish a clear understanding of the re-ranking, especially how each of the firms fared with regard to the individual elements that constituted the qualitative review.