Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1534195
4 NEWS 4 JAMES DEBONO jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 9 APRIL 2025 NATIONALIST MEP Peter Agi- us has submitted amendments in the European Parliament Internal Market Committee with a view to addressing the systemic abuse of di- rect orders in Malta and opening up new opportunities for SMEs. "Before the election I vowed to fight corruption using new meth- ods. Direct orders by public au- thority in Malta are in some cas- es becoming a systemic tool for hidden favours to people close to politicians and political parties," Agius said. "This is severely affecting honest businesses who want to offer value for money and innovative prod- ucts and services." Agius said that existing EU rules do not allow for sufficient scrutiny of decisions by public authorities and do not empower operators sufficiently to challenge award de- cisions. "Today we make a first step to change the current rules whereby authorities will need to give duly justified reasons for using direct orders instead of public calls for offers and where companies are empowered to challenge award decisions to see that taxpayer money is spent efficiently." The amendments submitted by Agius foresee three key points ad- dressing corresponding deficien- cies in the current rules: The first proposal concerns an imperative obligation by public authorities to give detailed rea- sons for using the direct orders instead of a public call for offers. "Right now public authorities are using the direct order procedure without publishing their reasons for using such procedure. When pressed by court proceedings, authorities frequently invoke ur- gency which often times is self in- duced," Agius said. "I am proposing that authorities systematically publish in advance the reasons for using direct orders. This would allow public scrutiny and lead to more transparency in the use of tax-payer money." The said publication of reasons would also be published on the au- thority's website or public notice- board and not only in the official journal. This will according to the MEP ensure more direct commu- nication with interested bidders as to the spending of public money. A third proposal by MEP Peter Agius is that recourse to justice for failed bidders in public pro- curement be facilitated. At the moment, the challenging of award decisions is frequent- ly subject to high processing fees reaching up to €50,000 euros to start the administrative review process. This could deter many bidders, especially small compa- nies, to seek justice on their offers. "We need to empower smaller companies to challenge public de- cisions in case they feel aggrieved. We must not deter them from opening procedures through ex- orbitant fees," Agius said. "For this reason I am propos- ing that fees for contesting award decisions are capped to 0,25% of the award value not exceeding €25,000. This measure would sub- ject public authorities to a real ef- fective scrutiny of their decisions." The discussion between MEPs in the Internal Market Committee on a revised Public Procurement Directive will continue over the following months until Autumn this year when the European Commission is expected to sub- mit a revised Directive to address MEPs concerns and the feedback from stakeholders in the public consultation held over the past months. MEP Peter Agius presents amendments to EU rules to limit abuse of direct orders Peter Agius Five-storey block proposed along scenic road to Buskett Development consisting of 49 dwellings and 80 garages is being proposed in the immediate vicinity of the urban conservation area A five-storey development consisting of 83 garages and 49 overlying dwellings is be- ing proposed just outside Ra- bat's urban conservation area along Triq il-Buskett. The building will replace an existing townhouse and its large garden on the scenic road leading to the Buskett woodland. Plans submitted by de- veloper Michael Bugeja of the Bilom Group propose the complete demolition of the existing townhouse and the excavation of the site to make way for two levels of underground parking. The plans foresee the erection of nine maisonettes and a shop at ground floor level, 30 apartments at first, sec- ond and third floors and 10 penthouses in a receded floor level over a site area of 1,710sq.m. Despite the vicinity of the site to the UCA and the ODZ, the local plan still des- ignated the area where the development is being pro- posed for development of 3 floors and a semi basement. Under current policies this height is translated to 17.5m. But as confirmed by a street- scape analysis, the develop- ment will create blank party walls on neighbouring build- ings. The site is in the vicinity of various scheduled archae- ological tombs and 131m from St Dominic church and convent. The application is still at its initial stages and is still be- ing screened by the Planning Authority.