25 Apr 19: An administration that prides itself on being business-friendly should never act in a way that raises suspicion it uses taxpayers’ money to favour non-compliant bidders in a public procurement process. No amount of last-minute “clarifications” by the Contracts Department can blow away the whiff of irregular practices in what should be a transparent process that guarantees the best value-for-money for taxpayers. A controversial call for tenders by the Department of Contracts last December for a multi-million-euro cleaning contract at St Vincent de Paul Residence in Luqa was suspended amid objections by bidders on a number of issues.