22 companies and consortia have shown interest in a government call for the procurement and construction of a prefabricated hospital to treat Covid-19 patients. The highest bid is for €29 million, while the lowest is for €3.9 million.
The call for the procurement of a 90-bed hospital was issued on Monday by the Foundation for Medical Services but was stopped by Health Minister Chris Fearne after a PN MP claimed there was trading in influence.
Jason Azzopardi claimed that a local company, Tec Ltd, was already seeking quotes for the hospital before the call was even issued by the FMS. The company, Azzopardi said, is close to the Labour Party and had set up the tents used in Robert Abela's leadership campaign.
Speaking on Saturday, Chris Fearne rubbished the claims, saying that the aforementioned company was not interested in the project and had not even bid for the tender. He said, however, that the government was taking all claims seriously and he had stopped the process until the allegations are probed.
The Opposition has insisted that the government should be fully transparent on the probe, and should publish its terms of reference and conclusions.
Document seen by this newspaper show that 22 companies and consortia have bid for the hospital tender. Eight of the interested companies have not yet submitted their financial offer. Tec Ltd is not among the bidders.
While the tender document does not specifically mention Covid-19, it seems that Malta is moving in the same direction as other countries, most notably China, who resorted to pre-fab facilities as Coronavirus cases mounted.
China built a similar hospital with capacity for 1,000 patients in just nine days. The FMS tender specifies that the hospital has to be up and running within eight weeks of the tender being awarded.
According to the call, the hospital must include; a triage area; an emergency room clinic unit; two inpatient high dependency ward units equipped with a minimum of 24 beds, with patient monitors and 12 ventilators and six intensive care units equipped with 60 beds, 60 patient monitors and 45 ventilators.
Other facilities required include; an X-ray room, a pharmacy unit and a mortuary.
The contract will be awarded to the tenderer submitting the cheapest priced offer satisfying the administrative and technical criteria. The chosen bidder will be fined €50,000 per day for late commencement and for every day until the project is executed.
The government has been criticised by the Opposition for issuing a call for a prefab hospital rather than use or requisition the three former state hospitals that were privatised in the VGH/Steward Health Care deal. The Opposition said the private hospitals company has not honoured its contractual agreement of upgrading the three facilities to modern requirements.
The government has said that it is actually cheaper to build a prefab hospital than to upgrade the three hospitals to the levels required to treat Coronavirus patients.