The government dished out a total of €425,354.40 across direct orders – some of which were to the Labour Party’s favoured logistical operators – for the organisation of Public Service Week 2022 last year.
Figures published in the Government Gazette showed that the Office of the Prime Minister handed out no less than 11 direct orders to various companies for services related to the event, which was held at the start of May in 2022.
None of these services were ever made available as a tender on the government’s public procurement website, as should be standard procedure for non-emergency government spending.
Among the recipients of the direct orders were four companies which are well-known as suppliers for Labour Party events, and recipients of millions in direct orders in the last decade.
TEC Ltd were paid €13,720 in a direct order for the setting up and dismantling of the stage used for the Public Service Week, Nexos were paid €46,297.20 for the lighting for the event, Besteam Audio received €20,762.50 for the provision of audio, communications and logistics, which RVC Ltd received €65,000 for the LED wall used for the event.
All four of these companies are known to provide logistics and organisational services to the Labour Party, including at political rallies and mass meetings.
They have received millions in taxpayer money for pretty much all of the major events organised by the government, including related to Malta’s presidency of the European Council, the 2015 CHOGM meeting, and a number of other concerts and more minor events.
TEC Ltd, for instance, netted over €430,000 across 21 direct orders related to the information campaign surrounding the Malta Metro project in November 2021.
The largest direct order granted in connection with the Public Service Week was of €76,893.70, which the government paid to marketing consultants Communique Ltd for promoting the event across the media.
A company called Mad About Video was paid €61,730 for the rental of video control and monitors, while Corinthia Catering received €51,776 for catering services in connection with the event.
AF Printworks Ltd received €37,415 for the provision of totems, logos, cladding and wrapping, the Malta Fairs and Conventions Centre (MFCC) was paid €28,000 in order to host the event, Motion Blur Ltd were granted a direct order of €11,650 for filming and the Għaqda Nazzjonali Każini tal-Banda was paid €12,110 for a concert which was held during the event.
The direct orders were almost all granted in the last week of April 2022 – just a week before Public Service Week itself was held. The last direct order to be granted was in fact on Friday 29 April – just three days before the event got underway on Monday 2 May.
Amongst other things at the event, it was during this week that Principal Permanent Secretary Mario Cutajar – who heads the public service – announced that he would be retiring from his post. He had taken up the post in 2013, having been the very first appointment made by the new Labour government after the general election.
Within two weeks of his retirement as public service chief, the government appointed Cutajar as the chairman of national heritage agency Heritage Malta.
He had already been appointed to the agency as an executive director on its board of directors, in 2019, thereby topping up his salary as Principal Permanent Secretary with another €19,000 per year.
