Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1012451
WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT WEDNESDAY EDITION €1.00 Newspaper post EDITORIAL • PAGE 9 WEDNESDAY • 8 AUGUST 2018 • ISSUE 599 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY The mid-week edition of MaltaToday will not be published on Wednesday 15 August, a public holiday. It will be back in print on Wednesday 22 August How realistic is a two-thirds majority for Labour? Commissioner for children insists bullying can never be justified PAGES 6-7 PAGE 5 ANALYSIS K ARL AZZOPARDI ARCHBISHOP Charles J Scicluna, will be personally celebrating Ella Agius's Holy Communion at her residence next Sunday, Ella Agius's father has told MaltaToday. The family will be celebrating the Holy Communion by replacing the Eucharist with bread, making it easier for Ella to accept it. Having been denied official certi- fication by Burmarrad parish priest, Christian Anthony Borg, Ella's family were ST VINCENT DE PAUL EXTENSION CONTRACT WORTH €274 MILLION Archbishop Scicluna to personally certify autistic child's Holy Communion PAGE 2 GOVERNMENT DENIES ISSUING DIRECT ORDER DESPITE PUBLIC NOTICE KURT SANSONE THE contract to build an ex- tension at St Vincent de Paul was listed as a direct order in the Government Gazette but the authorities now contend otherwise. Worth €274 million, the con- tract was awarded to JCL & MHC Consortium, a company formed between James Cater- ers and a subsidiary of the db Group. But while denying outright that the lucrative tender was awarded by direct order, the parliamentary secretariat for the elderly yesterday failed to explain why it was listed so in the Government Gazette of 20 July. The gazette, which is the gov- ernment's official publication channel, listed the contract un- der the direct orders issued by the Family Ministry. It was awarded on 9 Novem- ber 2017 by St Vincent de Paul and the contract description was "management services of new hospital/ residence (part of public private partnership)" for a value of €273,649,698. In its first statement since the story was first reported by the Times of Malta, the parliamen- tary secretariat yesterday insist- ed that the tender was awarded on the basis of a public call for tenders issued in November 2015. PAGE 2