Sources told this newspaper that some of the bids received from individual contractors for the tenders issued by the ADT Roads Directorate, were as much as 75 per cent over the estimated value of the work.
The source said that 46 of the 72 tenders issued by the ADT were excessively higher than the estimate made by ADT architects. All the contractors who have submitted their bid have all provided their services to the government in the past.
The road works in question are limited to work in residential roads and include a number that have never been constructed before. Some of them have never been given a layer of asphalt.
The sources said this strange situation has forced the ADT to conduct fresh exercises to estimate the road works again. However, this new exercise did not give the expected results because the value of the tenders was still exceeding the estimate of the work by double-digit percentages.
For example, the cheapest tender received for the construction of a road in Zebbug is 50.2 per cent over the estimated value of the work as compiled by the ADT architects.
Another example is the construction of a water culvert in Mellieha. The cheapest tender received by the ADT was 74.7 per cent more expensive than the estimated amount.
The Road Directorate also issued a tender for the construction of two connecting roads in Marsascala and Gudja.
In the case of Marsascala, one contractor tendered 13 per cent over the estimate for one and 10 per cent under for the other. In Gudja, another contractor tendered 11 per cent over for one road and four per cent under the estimate for the other.
It is understood that this situation has led to a lot of wastage of time, mainly because all road works are being re-evaluated in order to see whether the problem was caused by architects under-estimating the work involved.
Another matter that was slowing down the process in the awarding of these tenders was that, according to law, if a tender costs less than Lm20,000, this may be issued directly by the ADT. However, if the value of the tender goes beyond this amount, the tender would have to be re-issued through different channels.
Contracts over Lm20,000 have to be awarded after a call for tenders is issued by the Contracts Department.
When contacted for a comment on this situation, a spokesman for the Ministry for Urban Development and Roads said the situation is unacceptable and the government cannot award tenders that have been classified as “too expensive”.
“It is hard to understand why road work contractors complain that they cannot sustain their operations with the limited amount of work being generated while at the same time submit tenders with over-inflated values. Apart from this, some road works cannot be carried out simply because no one bothers to submit a tender, such as one for the construction of part of Triq ix-Xewk in Paola,” he said.
The spokesman confirmed that this situation was causing delays in the awarding of the contracts and was also causing considerable inconvenience to the people living in the roads who, in some cases, have been hoping for a better road for years.
When asked what was happening now, the spokesman said the government was studying the situation to see what approach it should take. He said that a decision has been taken to divert funds allocated under the national budget for the construction of residential roads to other projects.