Termination of the Bidni Project
April 1, 2025
The Koperattiva Produtturi taz-Zebbug Limited has recieved an official communication from the EAFRD Managing Authority and the Agricultural Paying Agency that the Contract Number 26006/286566/2024 for the suport of the conservation and the sustainable use of gentic resources in agriculture has been terminated. The letter is dated 23rd January, 2025 and was signed by Eng. Anthony Camilleri, Head of the EAFRD Managing Authority and Ms. Louisa Formosa, Head of ARPA.
The Cooperative has never been intimated that there were any deficiences in the implementation of the project and therefore the Cooperative was very shocked on the receipt of this letter. The Cooperative established contacts with the Office of the Prime Minister, and the Minister of Agriculture, and also informed the Leader of the Opposition. Through the intervention of the OPM, a meeting was held with the Minister of Agriculture Dr. Anton Refalo, but the Officials mentioned above kept insisting that they could not recommend new intiaitves so that the contract may be continued. During the meeting, the Cooperative was presented with very limited information on the conclusions and reasons for the termination of the contract. The Government officials were only interested in terminating the meeting and direct the Cooperative to commence Arbitration as per the contents of the letter mentioned above.
The reasons for the termination of the contract as per the official letter are the following:
1. the recruitment process for the employees were made through WhatsApp mesages: the recuitment process was made through adverts in The Times and the invoice was re-imbursed by ARPA;
2. during the application stage a quotation was obtained from Roderick Desira (at the time member of the Committee): the quotation was intended only for satisfying the requirement of the application process and was not executable as all quotations had to be obtained after the project approval date;
3. Mr. Kyle Spiteri and Mr. Roderick Desira were involved in the application process and that the engagement of Mr. Jimmy Magro as Project Manager might have led to suspicions that he may change his terms of employment. The MA and ARPA also stated that Mr. Roderick Desira had been employed in the project: Mr. Kyle Spiteri had nothing to do with the application process except that he was proposed as the Technical Manager; Mr. Roderick Desira has never been employed on the project. The terms and conditions of the employment of Mr. Jimmy Magro was subject to an employment contract approved by the Committee of the Cooperative and could not be changed without the approval of the Committee. A contract for EU funding cannot be terminated on the possibility of having a suspicion that something may change when there are so many controls, checks and balances.
By the termination of this contract, which included high value research about the Bidni indigenous olive tree, Malta has lost the use of EU funds, has lost the possibility of having further data on the Bidni Cultivar and had lost its credentials with working with local and international professional bodies.
The Cooperative condemns the negative approach of the Managing Authority and ARPA and has taken all the steps to defend all its rights at law and has demanded - through the Arbitration process - the liquidation of financial damages and the recovery of all expenses made during the implimentation of the contract.
This news item is being published on this date of 1st April, 2025 as the Cooperative wanted to take advantage of informal channels in order to salvage the situation.
