A court upheld a request by Maltese consortium Island Buses Malta to halt the signing of a contract between the government and Spanish company Autobus de Leon to run the bus service.
The Malta Independent on Monday reported that court action was taken by the Maltese consortium after it discovered that the conditions that were being discussed between the government and the Spanish entity differed from those established in the call for expressions of interest.
Mr Justice Mark Chetcuti temporarily upheld a request by Island Buses Malta to issud a warrant of prohibitory injunction in a case filed against Transport Malta, the Transport Ministry, the Government and Malta Public Transport Services.
The case will be heard on 27 November.
In the request filed in court Island Buses argued that the tender was awarded to Autobuses De Leon when their bid did not respect the conditions laid down in the call for expression of interest (EOI).
It emerged that Autobuses De Leon would not be operating the whole service immediately as specified in the EOI but would be benefiting from €23 million in subsidies what would increase over the years - as the service expanded by buying more buses and employing more people.
Besides, according to the criteria in the expressions of interest, bids had to be made according to fixed parameters so that the amount of subsidies needed for the entire service would be calculated upfront.
On Monday, The Malta Independent reported that the Maltese consortium that lost a bid to operate public transport services to a Spanish company has taken court action after it discovered that the conditions being discussed between the government and the Spanish operator are different to those listed in the call for tenders for the service.
Two meetings with representatives of Autobuses de Leon, which Transport Minister Joe Mizzi had said will be taking over the public transport service as from January, have not led to any conclusion. Meetings were held on Sunday and Monday, in the hope that an accord would have been reached in time to be announced in the budget speech, but they did not bear fruit.
Sources told The Malta Independent that the government has been forced to make more and more concessions to the Spanish company, and as TMID reported in the past, the subsidy will be amounting to more than €23 million for the first year. The Malta Independent is informed that Autobuses de Leon has made a condition that subsidies are to be revised after the first year of operation, which was confirmed by the Prime Minister in the evening when he said that the subsidies would "initially" be €23 million, implying that they would go up in subsequent years.
Failure to reach agreement is adding more pressure on Transport Minister Joe Mizzi. The Malta Independent two weeks ago reported that Mr Mizzi is likely to lose his place if the Prime Minister carries out a Cabinet reshuffle.
Island Buses argued that in accepting the phased-in service, Transport Malta gave Autobuses De Leon an advantage and exceeded its discretional powers.
Had it known this was an option, Island Buses said it would have submitted a more competitive bid quoting a lesser figure that the €40 million subsidy it put forward.
Island Buses added that it could not appeal the tender adjudication since the time period had elapsed and, it was only until recently that all the facts emerged in the media.