MEPA ‘denies’ extending tender for rental of cars

The Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA) said that the entire tendering process for a rental contract of 54 low-emission cars “is not administered by MEPA, but by the Department of Contracts”.

This is in response to a front-page article that appeared in today’s edition of newspaper ‘In-Nazzjon’ which said that “a tender released by MEPA that should have closed yesterday morning was extended by two weeks right before its closing time”.

The article goes on to say that “the tender was published by MEPA on 27 June 2014 and involved the supply of 54 low-emission cars for a period of 5 years”. The newspaper understands that this five-year contract amounts to more than a million euro.

It said that the tender’s closing date was originally set for yesterday morning at 9:30am. Sources told the newspaper that the decision to extend the tender was only taken two hours prior to the closing date and that the e-mail through which this decision was communicated was sent at 9:27am, three minutes before the original closing date.

Moreover, the article pointed out that the application process for this tender is an electronic one, rather than one whereby interested applications submit their proposals in a sealed document.

The article said that people who submitted their proposals in time are now left wondering why a decision was made to extend the tender’s closing date.