A host of the country’s biggest road contractors netted a total of a whopping €23m in direct orders in the last 12 months for works associated with Enemalta’s drive to update the country’s electricity distribution network.

The works were handled by Malta’s roads agency Infrastructure Malta on Enemalta’s behalf, according to the Government Gazette, which was analysed by The Malta Independent on Sunday.

Enemalta has scrambled to lay 82 kilometres of cables across the country after Malta experienced a series of power cuts, some lasting for days, during a summer heatwave in 2023. The government had hoped that the scale of the works would help avoid a similar situation this summer, but that hasn’t happened: Malta and Gozo have still been impacted by a significant number of power cuts, even though the heat has not matched that of the previous year.

Regardless, the works cost money – public money – and data published in the Government Gazette shows the cost, and the beneficiaries, of these works.

Public authorities are obliged to publish their procurement in the Government Gazette, irrespective of whether projects were paid for on the basis of a tender or on the basis of a direct order.

Infrastructure Malta’s list of procurement for the period between the start of this year and 30 June was published in the Government Gazette last week, while the same list catering for the period between 1 July 2023 and the end of the same year was published last March.

An analysis of the myriad of direct orders handed out shows that road contractors received a total of €23,044,376 over the course of 12 months, with some direct orders running into millions of euros.

€12,520,198.73 was spent across 25 direct orders in the second half of 2023, while the remaining €10,524,177.99 was spent across 13 direct orders in the first half of 2024.

The largest single direct order was awarded to Schembri Infrastructures Ltd, which received a whopping €4,146,900 for cable laying works on various roads in Marsa and Luqa. Indeed, Schembri Infrastructures was the biggest beneficiary of the direct orders: it received €5,859,315.61 split across four direct orders.

The next biggest direct order, €3,347,075, was handed to Asfaltar Ltd for cable laying works in various roads in Qormi and Luqa.

Other contractors made hundreds of thousands off the direct orders.

Philip Agius & Sons received a total of €2,491,480.48 from four direct orders, the largest of which was approximately €1.8 million for emergency cable laying in Dingli, Rabat and Mtarfa.

Schembri Barbros was paid €2,194,534 for two direct orders, one which covered cable laying works in Kirkop, and the other which covered “emergency” cable works in Ħal Far and Zurrieq.

V. & C. Contractors meanwhile received €2,029,664 for three direct orders associated to cable works in Għaxaq, Luqa and Gudja – which was a single direct order worth almost €1 million – and more cable works in Qormi and Luqa together with the construction of a culvert, which cost €484,001.

The company LK Ltd received a total of €1,620,170 across four direct orders, the largest of which was worth €690,000 for cable laying works in Santa Lucija.

The well-known Polidano Brothers were handed two direct orders worth €1,340,458 – one for cable laying works in Rabat and the other for cable laying works in Mosta.

A host of other contractors received direct orders: Dim & Co Ltd received two direct orders which are worth a total of €707,681; Excel SIS Enerji Uretim received seven direct orders worth a total of €649,640 and T&C Ciappara Construction received two direct orders, worth a total of €606,373.

Rockcut Ltd received a single direct order worth €494,110, while Green Building Solutions received a single direct order worth exactly the same amount; Central Asphalt Ltd received a single direct order worth €441,418; E. Mifsud & Sons received a single direct order worth €430,283; Bonnici Brothers received a single direct order worth €179,206 and Bommer Contractors received a single direct order worth €149,249.

Infrastructure Malta is no stranger to handing out direct orders.

A direct order is a process which effectively does away with the conventional tender procurement procedure: unlike in the case of a tender, a direct order can be given to anyone whom the contracting authority wishes.

There are instances where a direct order is justifiable: namely when no applications have been submitted in response to an open procedure, when the services – for artistic or technical reasons – can only be provided by a particular supplier, and when the works are deemed to be an emergency in nature.

In Infrastructure Malta’s case however, there is no such indication of any of the three aforementioned reasons – particularly the last one. The roads agency used to list “emergency works” as the justification for resorting to direct orders for certain works, but such a moniker does not appear in the most recent list – except for in three cases – and hasn’t been used as a justification for a while.

Indeed, so far this year Infrastructure Malta has issued 100 direct orders for works that it has commissioned itself, and not on behalf of other entities, such as the aforementioned works for Enemalta, which were worth a total of €6,920,343.

The largest direct order was one of the very few to be classified as an emergency job. This was the resurfacing works and intervention on a bridge at Triq Mikiel Anton Vassalli in St Julian’s. This is the bridge which connects Swieqi to the area around St George’s Bay. Repairs were undertaken after photos showing the sunken road surface above the bridge were published on social media. That job alone cost €665,000, and was awarded to V. & C. Contractors.