The Malta Tourism Authority is awaiting approval for the payment of a €117,000 direct order to an architectural firm co-run by the Labour Party’s deputy leader.

The direct order, published in the Government Gazette on 3 March, is listed as being for the upgrading of the Bugibba Square and would go to the firm XYZ Architecture & Design.

One of the architectural firm’s three lead partners is Labour Party deputy leader for party affairs Daniel Micallef.

According to the information presented in the Government Gazette, the direct order is yet to be approved.

The regeneration of Bugibba Square was announced by Tourism Minister Clayton Bartolo in July 2021, with Bartolo stating back then that the project will have €1.4 million allocated to it.

Computer-generated renders of what the new square – which hasn’t been upgraded in over 20 years – were presented, and the works were meant to start by the end of 2021 and be finished before summer 2022.

The renders show that the square will receive trees, new paving, new seating areas, and a recreational area but no further technical details about the plans were provided during the launch press conference.

Voxel Eyes, the company responsible for creating the renders for the works, say on their online portfolio that they had been approached by XYZ Architecture & Design and the Malta Tourism Authority “to provide visuals for the regeneration of the Bugibba main square.”

In fact, a Planning Authority application for the embellishment of the square had been filed by the MTA – with XYZ Architecture & Design as the project architects – way back in December 2016. 

The plans were however shelved for a while after the PA’s case officer in 2017 recommended that the application be refused because no clearance had been obtained from Transport Malta for the proposed alterations.

New designs were presented in July 2021 – a couple of days after the regeneration was announced by Bartolo – and, after clearance was obtained from Transport Malta, the project was approved by the Planning Authority on 7 March 2022.

Despite the summer 2022 timeline for the completion of the project which was given by Bartolo the previous year, works on the square have not started.

A search on the government’s public procurement website does not reveal any tenders issued by the Malta Tourism Authority for the regeneration of the square, although there is currently a tender open for “a Regeneration Plan for St Paul's Bay, Bugibba, Qawra, Xemxija and Salina Area” with the deadline for submissions being 26 April 2023.

The Tourism Zones Regeneration Agency is the entity responsible for the tender.