PM’s former business partner wins Pixkerija concession appeal despite

A government tribunal has cancelled the recommendation to award one of Malta's most valuable public land concessions to the Carmelo Stivala Group, upholding an appeal by the losing bidder Bonnici Bros Ltd despite the fact that Bonnici Bros offered roughly €350,000 less per year. The Public Contracts Review Board (PCRB), chaired by Kenneth Swain, issued an 87-page judgment nullifying the award recommendation for the 65-year concession over the Old Fish Market (Pixkerija) in Valletta, the former Quarantine Hospital, adjacent heritage buildings, and berthing facilities along the Grand Harbour waterfront.

The board's proceedings ran for almost two years before the judgment was delivered. Bonnici Bros had offered annual concession payments of €242,435. The Carmelo Stivala Group's bid came in at €592,440 a year — around €350,000 more.

The PCRB found, nonetheless, that the higher-bidding Stivala Group had failed on several substantive grounds. The Stivala Group's submission lacked a Design Rating Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) — a document the Request for Proposals listed as mandatory. The evaluation committee's own technical expert could not identify a valid EPC within the Stivala Group's submission.

When asked to clarify, the group referred evaluators back to the same report they had already reviewed, without supplying the certificate itself. The PCRB ruled the missing certificate was not a minor defect that could be corrected after the fact but a substantive failure to meet a mandatory tender requirement. A second ground related to the 'Alternative Energy Generation' criterion.

The Stivala Group's bid explicitly stated that alternative energy generation was not feasible at the site, yet evaluators awarded it four marks out of five under that heading. The PCRB described the scoring as "manifestly erroneous". The board also found a procedural irregularity: the contracting authority had not provided Bonnici Bros with requested documentation before the statutory deadline for filing an appeal expired, placing Bonnici Bros at a material disadvantage.

As a result of the ruling, the award recommendation in the Stivala Group's favour has been set aside and the contracting authority must now revisit its decision. It does not automatically award the concession to Bonnici Bros. The Stivala Group retains the option to challenge the decision before the Court of Appeal.

Gilbert Bonnici, managing director of Bonnici Bros Ltd, had shared private business interests with Prime Minister Robert Abela in the period before Abela entered politics. The Carmelo Stivala Group is headed by Michael Stivala, who is also president of the Malta Developers Association; former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat works as a consultant for the group.