Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has defended high value direct orders issued by various government ministries exceeding €10,000 saying that it is the National Audit Office’s job to investigate what it thinks are breaches in the rules, which is does at the end of each year.

He also added that there is oversight coming from the Department of Contracts and should they have seen any actions in breach of regulations, the DOC would have raised a red flag.

The Prime Minister gave assurances that everything will be made public, and pressed on whether he would issue an investigation to ascertain that no rules were breached, he questioned why government should be doing work carried out by the National Audit Office.

“An investigation happens each year. The NAO does a review of all departments. It issues a report – direct orders and procurements, we are the first government which does not shelve the report. The Auditor General said that above 90 per cent of its previous recommendations have been observed. The NAO will continue to do this work.”

Since Parliament resumed after the Christmas recess, a series of parliamentary questions have been made by Opposition MPs asking various ministries about the amounts spent on direct orders.

A direct order is when a government entity or ministry unilaterally decides to award a contract to a particular company or service provider without issuing a public call for expression and surveying the various bids.

There are exceptions at law providing for such, for example if one particular company is the only one on the market available to offer a particular service. There are other ‘exceptional circumstances’ that provide for the allowance of direct orders. Apart from this, any contract upwards of €10,000 must go through the Department of Contracts.

A series of parliamentary questions covered by this newsroom and all other independent media show how several entities within the Office of the Prime Minister issued direct orders worth more than €5 million in 2017.

An IT contract was awarded to a particular company without a call for expression work €880,000 by Corradino Correctional Facility.

Some €800,000 worth of contracts by direct orders were awarded to unknown companies in a very short period of time. The name of the company was kept withheld under some clause providing for secrecy in certain circumstances.

In addition, media reports show how €11 million was issued to Wasteserv, the waste company at the centre of employment allegations, over the past three years via direct orders. 

Comparison between journalists’ murders

The Prime Minister was pressed on several issues while fielding questions from the press. Recently, Europe was again rocked with the news that a journalist together with his girlfriend were shot dead in Slovakia.

On 16 October 2017, journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was assassinated in a car bomb just metres away from her Bidnija residence.

This morning, two top Slovak government officials resigned in the wake of the Slovak journalist’s murder, with one saying that he could not reconcile with a journalist being murdered under his watch.

Slovak police had declared that the two government officials were mentioned in the final draft of the investigative journalist’s most recent expose before he was murdered.

Locally, no government officials had resigned following Caruana Galizia’s murder while police investigations have led to the arraignment of three key suspects.

Prime Minister Muscat was asked about his government’s accountability with reference to the attack and how his actions have compared with that of the Slovakian government.

 “I think accountability happens when the people who carried out the attack are found and the people who allegedly carried it out have been taken up to court, have been found by our services, and by carrying responsibility by finding who mandated the attack.”

Ornis committee decision to open hunting season for Quail in peak time for protected Turtle Dove migration

BirdLife is considering pursuing a second referendum to ban spring hunting after the Ornis Committee recommended that this year it takes place during the peak migratory season of the now protected turtle dove, despite scientific evidence recommending the contrary.

Scientific evidence and the advice from the Environment Resources Authority, Birdlife CEO Mark Sultana explained, categorically suggested that the spring hunting season takes place between 15 March to 4 April, specifically to avoid the turtle dove, which is now protected in spring. The Ornis Committee has recommended the season to be open from 5 April to 25 April. These dates are subject to approval from the Prime Minister.

“I am being clear, we will not allow abuse to take place. We have given a clear warning. We have clearly passed on the message that if there is flagrant abuse the Ornis committee should take all the necessary steps.”

He also conceded that enforcement is lacking in terms of observing hunting abuses.