Former B’Kara mayor Fenech Adami rapped for public procurement breaches

The Local Governance Board has accused former Birkirkara mayor Michael Fenech Adami of breaching public procurement regulations when issuing contracts related to roadworks, car rentals, computer desks and cleaning.

The damning report says that the former PN mayor had personally granted work to several companies without issuing calls for tender or even gaining council approval. It instructed the director of the local governance department to take all measures it deemed fit against Fenech Adami - the son of former Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami and brother of PN deputy leader Beppe Fenech Adami  - and his former executive secretary Arthur Pizzuto.

Fenech Adami has vehemently denied the findings, dismissing them as an act of “political vengeance” by the Labour government and Birkirkara’s incumbent PL mayor Joanne Debono Grech.

The Nationalist Party also refused to accept the findings, given that Ronnie Pellegrini – a former acolyte of Lorry Sant and current chief of staff to civil liberties minister Helena Dalli – is one of the three members on the local governance board.

The board said that Fenech Adami had contracted V&C Contractors to carry out roadworks without issuing a call for tender or even informing his fellow councilors. Indeed, it only signed a contract with the new Labour-led council in June 2013, after the works were carried out.

“Fenech Adami’s defence was that only two contractors – V&C and Polidano – had declared interest in carrying out the roadworks, but that the latter had informed the local council’s architect that they wouldn’t carry out works for the council until outstanding dues had been settled. Given that the works were of an urgent nature, he said that granting the contract to V&C was a natural decision and that this was informally agreed upon by the council,” the local governance board said. “This is a clear example of bad governance, whereby a mayor acted unilaterally without formal council approval and breached established public procurement regulations. V&C Contractors were also complicit in the regulation breaches, and indeed only signed the contract with the council after carrying out the works.”

The local governance board also flagged how the council had paid €30,000 on car rentals from Davico Services and €54,000 in photocopier rentals from Corex International, without first issuing a call for tender. This is despite the amounts involved having exceeded the legal limits through which a council can grant a contract by direct order. The contract with Davico Services was only signed by Fenech Adami, despite the law stating that council contracts must also be signed by the executive secretary.

In another case, Fenech Adami had purchased ten computer desks from G-Force Electronic Services for €11,900 without issuing a call for tender or seeking council approval. No financial records of the procurement for the desks could be found in the council’s books.

Fenech Adami had said that the desks were purchased as part of the council’s Youth Empowerment Scheme and that the money would be recouped by the fees paid by youths to attend this scheme. However, the current Labour council returned the desks back to the company, after only €5,000 had been paid in fees.

In a similar case, Fenech Adami had personally granted a €2,809 contract to General Cleaners for the rental of ten recycling bins across Birkirkara between 2013 and 2014. The contract wasn’t approved by the council or signed by its executive secretary and exceeded the legal limit for direct orders.

Elsewhere, Fenech Adami had personally agreed to pay an extra €3,000 a month to Northern Cleaning for its contract to empty rubbish skips that it won by tender. The former mayor insisted that the extra payment amounted to a variation of the original tender. However, the local governance board warned that the variation was over 30% the cost of the original tender – well over the 10% limit for variations – meaning that a new call for offers should have been issued. This was confirmed by auditors at Grant Thornton and Mazars.

‘Political vengeance by Labour government’ – Fenech Adami

In a statement to the press, Fenech Adami decried the report’s findings as “political vengeance” by the Labour government and Birkirkara mayor Joanne Debono Grech, the daughter of veteran Labour MP Joe Debono Grech.

“The report is full of false accusations and half-truths, and it is clear that the board reached its conclusions on the basis of politics rather than facts,” he said. “I had provided the local governance board with a detailed version of events and referred to several official documents,” he said. “Indeed, the board’s reaction to my testimony was an admittance that the entire investigation was a waste of time.

“Joanne Debono Grech wants to cover up her failures as Birkirkara mayor by casting a shadow on the work that I carried out to help Birkirkara residents during my tenure as mayor,” he said.

‘We will not accept justice by Ronnie Pellegrini’ – PN

The Nationalist Party dismissed the board’s findings, on the grounds that one of its members is Ronnie Pellegrini, a former Lorry Sant acolyte and current chief of staff to civil liberties minister Helena Dalli. The other two board members are Noel Bartolo and Arthur Ellul.

The PN argued that Pellegrini is renowned for his pro-Labour partisanship and that he indeed recently came out in favour of political discrimination. The party was referring to Pellegrini’s recent Facebook comment in reaction to a report that workers who are PL supporters are enjoying preferential treatment at the St Vincent de Paul home for the elderly. When he posted the story on Facebook, Pellegrini wrote “Hekk ghandu jkun” (That’s how it should be).

“We have no faith in a local governance board that includes a person like Ronnie Pellegrini, who instigates and promotes political discrimination,” the PN said.