News • 12 JANUARY 2003

University security tender awarded to agency without licence

Discrimination claimed in awarding of tender

Tal- QroQQ - A tender for security services issued by the University of Malta was awarded to a company who at the time of tendering, had not yet become a licensed private security service.

According to information confirmed by MaltaToday, the current security services provider operating at the University of Malta had been still in the process of applying for its licence at the time of tendering. Although the company, Grange Security and Consultancy Services Ltd, was still not a licensed security service provider at the time of tendering, the University of Malta still awarded the tender to the company, nonetheless.

The action has conflicted however with the very conditions laid out in the tender itself, discriminating against the other tenderers who had apparently satisfied the necessary conditions.

Speaking for the University Rector, Mr Albert Attard said the University treated such "slight departures" from published specifications by making sure of compliance within a stipulated time period.

No licence secured

According to the conditions laid out in the Tender for the Provision of Security Services at the University of Malta and the Junior College, a licence for operating as a security service provider was mandatory for application.

Item 3.3 (vi) in fact stipulates that tenderers had to submit along with the tender documents, a copy of the Licence of Private Guard Agency as according to the Private Guards and Local Wardens Act of 1996.

MaltaToday can confirm that until the closing date of the tender on the 19 November 2002, Grange Security Services Ltd had in fact no licence to operate as a security agency and had not provided any form of licence along with its tender documents.

According to information issued in the Government Gazette of 12 December 2002, Mr Joseph Grange, director of Grange Security and Consultancy Services, was in fact still in the process of applying for a licence. This also included the application for the licences of 15 potential private guards.

University justifies

Speaking to MaltaToday, Albert Attard, from the Office of the Rector of the University of Malta, said that the tender was awarded to the company subject to it obtaining a licence by a set date: "As you may be aware, the company has been recently set up and its application for a licence to operate as a private security agency was being processed by the police authorities."

Mr Attard insisted that the request for the submission of information and documents by tenderers was not an exclusion clause.

"Tenders were evaluated on their overall value to the University. Slight departures from published specifications are normally rectified before award or else award is made subject to confirmation of compliance within a stipulated time period."

Mr Attard said that when in 2002 the contract for the same security services was issued, this had been done subject to the contractor forwarding a copy of a valid third party insurance policy by a certain date.

"As this company submitted a very competitive offer and having regard to the foregoing, the University of Malta proceeded with the award as is normal practice in such circumstances."