By Daiva Repečkaitė, Sabrina Zammit, Evy Coeckelbergs and Julian Bonnici

• Amphora Media analysed every direct order and tender published in the government gazette between 2010 and 2025, covering three administrations and fifteen years of public spending.
  
• Over €1.15 billion was distributed through direct orders — a non-competitive channel reserved by law for emergencies — alongside €5.6 billion awarded through tenders.
  
• Direct-order spending spikes around elections. It peaked at €410 million in 2017 – the year of the snap election, Egrant allegations, and assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia — almost a third of the entire 2011-2025 total.
  
• A single 2017 contract, worth €273.6 million, was awarded to the JCL and MHC Consortium for works at St Vincent de Paul Residence. It is the largest direct order in the dataset and was flagged by the National Audit Office for multiple irregularities.
  
• Companies linked to the Bonnici Brothers — reported beneficiaries of a recent €120 million direct order for Mater Dei works — have won multi-million-euro direct orders across administrations, including €32 million in 2024 alone and a shooting-range contract that the NAO later flagged.

A new analysis by Amphora Media of every direct order and tender between 2011 and 2025 – spanning the administrations of Lawrence Gonzi, Joseph Muscat and Robert Abela – reveals how over €1.15 billion has been distributed through direct orders.

Over the same period, €5.6 billion was awarded through tenders, which are subject to far greater scrutiny and transparency. In 2025 alone, around €494.6 million was spent on tenders.

The figures span three administrations and fifteen years of public spending. Together they reveal a procurement culture in which a mechanism designed for genuine emergencies has become a routine — and largely unscrutinised — channel for distributing public money.

What are direct orders?

Direct orders, also known as direct contracts, are termed as “negotiated procedure without prior publication”. They help authorities react to emergencies, save time and reduce red tape and are permitted only in exceptional circumstances: extreme urgency or technical or artistic reasons making only one operator suitable to supply the goods/ service.

To preserve a degree of public accountability, the law requires every contracting authority to publish a list of direct orders over €5,000.

Direct orders have faced criticism as a non-competitive method for spending taxpayers’ money. The National Audit Office has flagged the considerable use of direct orders and has called for them to be used solely in “exceptional circumstances”.

Still, there is no single repository of direct orders; instead, the government publishes them biannually in the government gazette, a digital repository without a user-friendly search interface. The government rejects requests to provide such information to Parliament. 

Using a large language model developed with NotebookLM*, Amphora Media analysed all the direct orders & tenders issued between 2010 and 2025, to discover how the public procurement mechanism is used and who benefits.  

*Details on our methodology can be found at the bottom of this article.

The Election Effect: Over €600 Million In Direct Orders Issued Around Election Seasons, €410 Million In The 2017 Election Year

One pattern cuts across the administrations: direct order spending rises in and around election years. 

In 2017 – the year of the snap election, the Egrant revelations, and the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia – direct orders peaked at €410 million, accounting for almost a third of all logged direct-order spending across the entire fifteen-year dataset.

In 2021, the year ahead of the March 2022 general election under Abela, they reached over €87 million, and then around €76 millionin 2023, the year after the vote. 

In 2024 – the last complete year included in this analysis and the year of the MEP & Local Council Elections – the figure was close to €91.2 million.

Direct orders vs Tenders

Direct orders are not the only public procurement channel, and not even the largest. Across the same fifteen years, tenders accounted for €5.6 billion, but are subject to far more scrutiny.

Opentender, a website maintained by a consortium of research institutions, shows that the number of issued tenders peaked in 2025 at 1,210 – twice the 2024 figure and several times above the number recorded during the last years of the pre-2013 PN administration.

Tender activity spiked during the 2017 and 2022 elections, in 2023 and in 2025, averaging more than 1,000 per year, against an overall annual average of 674 (2010-2025).

The total value of tenders peaked in 2024, the year of the European Parliament and local council elections, at over €1 billion. 

The post-election years 2018 and 2023 saw tender values of nearly €550 million and over €724 million, respectively. 

Abela, Muscat, Gonzi: How different administrations dished out direct orders and tenders

Amphora Media’s analysis covered three different administrations: the PN administration under Lawrence Gonzi (Prime Minister 2008-2013; the analysis covers 2010-2013), and the PL administrations under Joseph Muscat (2013-early 2020) and Robert Abela (2020-present). 

It should be noted that data quality across the administrations differed.

Robert Abela (2020-2025*)

*The 2025 figure is mostly incomplete, as part of the direct orders were not published in time for the analysis.

Direct orders under the Abela administration total €391.4 million, an average of more than €65 million per year. 

The peak years include: 2024 (€91.2 million); 2021 (€87 million), the year before the March 2022 general election, and 2023 (€76 million), the year after the election.  In 2022, the year the election was held, the distribution dipped to almost €60 million.

To put this growth in context: almost €9 million was spent on direct orders in 2011. Adjusting for cumulative inflation (29.29%) – that would be roughly €11.5 million in today’s money – well below what the government spent in 2024, some €91.2 million.

Who’s benefited under Abela?

United Equipment Co (UNEC) Ltd, a machinery importer and part of the Bonnici Group, emerged as the largest single recipient of direct orders with €32.1 million. 

More recently, the Shift News revealed that the government issued a €120 million direct order to a consortium led by the Bonnici Brothers. 

The Bonnici Bros Services was also the beneficiary of nearly €3.5 million in direct orders under the Education & Sport Ministry for works on a shooting range. 

The National Audit Office flagged the shooting range project for poor project management, weak internal controls, and verbally authorised contract variations. 

Temping and security staff provider Ozo Malta emerged among the top 5, receiving almost €9.9 million. Amphora Media previously reported on contractors like this and how they have become an embedded feature in public procurements.

Direct orders flow between government entities. Under Abela, Infrastructure Malta collected over €7.7 million in direct orders, and Wasteserv Malta made close to €1.3 million this way.

The government did not respond to the questions sent.

Direct orders under the Abela administration

Year	Total logged amount (€)	Largest beneficiary	Amount awarded to the largest beneficiary (€)
2020	72,847,146.29	Xylem Water Solutions Italia s.r.l – a water supply and sewage technology developer	2,637,681.55
2021	87,039,142.72	Ozo Malta Ltd	9,675,178.21
2022	59,897,996.18	Link-2018 JV linked to construction contractors, Asfaltar Group and involved in underpass building	4,691,989.30
2023	76,067,431.62	Calamata Cuschieri	3,150,000.00
2024	91,163,051.37	United Equipment (UNEC), part of Bonnici Group, contracted to cover the operation of a power plant and the supply of sodium bicarbonate.	32,044,030.95
2025	4,388,279.16	Testaferrata Bonici Ltd – the government leased a palazzo from them	288,000.00

According to Opentender, the Abela administration has seen the average “Good Procurement Score” decline over the years. 

The supplier awarded the largest amount in tenders was Nexans Norway AS (over €185 million for the manufacturing and installation of a subsea cable). 

It was followed by Support Services Ltd (over €169 million for nursing and residential care), which shares the same ultimate ownership with James Caterers Ltd. The third was Kore Catering JV (over €152 million,  a joint venture between the James Caterers/JCL side and the db Group.

Joseph Muscat (2013- January 2020)

Direct order spending first ballooned under Muscat, totalling €771 million across his tenure (2013-January 2020) – an average of €110 million per year, and a figure no administration has matched yet.

In 2012, the government spent roughly €11.5 million on direct orders. By 2014, the first full year of the Muscat government, direct orders jumped to nearly €37 million.

The number of direct orders peaked at €410 millionin 2017, the year of a contentious election heavily influenced by the Egrant saga.

By far the largest beneficiary was the JCL and MHC Consortium, with €273.6 million awarded in 2017 for works at St Vincent de Paule. This is the single largest direct order in the 2010-2025 dataset.

The National Audit Office flagged the contract for multiple irregularities. The justification for not issuing a tender was that “competition was absent for technical reasons and for reasons of extreme urgency”.

After that, the next five top beneficiaries were Care Malta Ltd (care homes), Lyons Care (also care homes), Drugsales Ltd (importer of pharmaceuticals), Primecare Ltd (care homes), and, separately, Drugsales Ltd – Iklin.

Church entities also received multi-million direct orders during this period: the Archdiocese made over €5.5 million in 2016-2017. 

During this time, ElectroGas Malta Ltd, a consortium comprising SOCAR Trading, Siemens Project Ventures, and GEM Holdings (representing the Gasan Group and Tumas Group won the bid to run Malta’s LNG operations. Under the Muscat administration, Siemens received more than €2.5 million across its branches.

Direct orders under the Muscat administration:

Year	Total logged amount (€)	Largest beneficiary	Amount awarded to the largest beneficiary (€)
2013	10,951,554.67	Palumbo (Malta) Shipyards Ltd	643,008.00
2014	36,952,842.31	Drugsales Ltd – Iklin	9,408,370.05
2015	8,800,511.71.	Health Services	288,000.00
2016	152,270,156.58.	Care Malta Ltd	61,817,040.00
2017	410,038,421.61	JCL and MHC Consortium	273,649,698.00
2018	68,847,655.94	Oliver Wyman – a US consultancy	4,150,000.00
2019	79,939,393.28	Cassar Fuel Ltd	4,168,312.50
2020	3,375,006.18.	LW SRL – Italian producer of speciality chemicals	611,700.00

The Good Procurement Score rose towards the end of Muskat’s mandate and was higher than his predecessor’s.

According to Opentender, the largest beneficiary of tenders under Muscat was Excel Sis Enerji Üretim Construction, which received nearly €158 million.  

Founded in 2019, the company was initially embedded in an investment structure involving Maltese holding companies linked to Joseph Portelli, Joseph and Mark Agius, and Daniel Refalo (CTJ Holdings, JOGIUS, and DTX Holdings.”

The runner-up was Link-2018 Joint Venture (an entity that appears to be linked to construction contractors, Asfaltar Group, nearly €82 million) and also a significant beneficiary of direct orders later under Abela (€4.7 million).

The next were the Italian-owned Building Energy Technologies Ltd (over €69 million, awarded in the same roadworks tender as Excel Sis), Kosta Joint Venture (over €53.5 million) and RRMalta JV (linked to Bonnici Group, over €53.5 million) according to Opentender,.

Kosta Joint Venture is led by Polidano Bros. Ltd, and reportedly involves Philip Agius and Sons and Central Asphalt Limited. Josette Schembri, the wife of former PM chief of staff Keith Schembri, is a shareholder in Carmel Limited, the sole shareholder of Central Asphalt.

In response to Amphora Media’s questions, Polidano Group’s representative wrote that “The joint venture was set up in 2012 solely for the purpose of submitting [the Coastal Road, circa €27 million] tender, in line with standard industry practice, and was formalised following the award of the contract.”

“Polidano had no interaction with Ms Josette Schembri; neither did she have any involvement in the management or operations of the joint venture,” the group’s representative added, emphasising full compliance with the regulatory framework and explaining that Central Asphalt was brought in “on the basis of its established track record in road-building works”.

Lawrence Gonzi (2010-2013)

Direct-order data for the Gonzi administration is available in full only for 2011 and 2012.  For 2010, few direct orders were issued, and their amounts were not stated. The largest number of direct orders was issued for the supply of trees. 

According to the disclosed figures, the Gonzi administration was distributing €20.4 million in direct orders over two years.

Palumbo Shipyards was the largest overall recipient of direct orders during 2011-2012, with close to €4 million. Rolls-Royce emerged as the runner-up, with €1.4 million, spread across two years. 

A striking feature of the period is how often direct orders went to foreign suppliers: Isis Innovation in the UK, now Oxford University Innovation (which is Oxford University’s technology transfer company), EBSCO Information Services BV (a provider of research databases), or Elsevier Information Services (an academic publisher and provider of research information and analytics services).

Direct orders under the Gonzi administration

Year	Total logged amount (€)	Largest amount to individual awardee (€)	Largest beneficiary
2011	8,915,901.8	1,331,950.54	Rolls Royce
2012	11,542,816.92	2,670,494.80	Palumbo Shipyards
2013 (until the election date)	99,937	63,393.00	Taser International Inc, Axon Enterprise Inc  – an American manufacturer of non-lethal weapons

Under Gonzi, the Good Procurement Score remained largely stagnant and below the score obtained under Muscat.

Within the 2009-2012 range of Opentender’s data, the top supplier in tenders was Burmeister & Wain Scandinavian Contractor A/S (nearly €183 million, energy engineers). The runner-up was J V Degremont SA / CCC-CMR (€57 million, sewage treatment works). B.E.V. JV Consortium, composed of Vassallo Builders Group, EFACEC, and BTA International, came third (almost €41.6 million), followed by Polidano Brothers Ltd (over €35.3 million). 

Detailed questions sent by Amphora Media to the Office of the Prime Minister, the  Department of Contracts and relevant ministries had not been replied to by the time of publication.

How did we do this analysis?

A comprehensive database of direct orders does not exist. Amphora Media built one by extracting structured data (awardee, awarding institution, amount and year) from the government gazette PDF files, using a large language model. 

The team manually verified a sample of direct orders and tenders, and corrections were made when discrepancies were detected.

Issues found in the data included: amounts & awardees not stated, figures presented as rates, differing currencies, typos, and spelling variations 

Records with missing amounts, figures presented as rates, or unclear awardees were excluded from the totals. 

The dataset runs until October 2025. The government gazette had by then recorded €4.3 million in direct orders – this is incomplete, the data is currently being published and will be added to the dataset.