MLP calls for inquiry into forensic lab

Two opposition spokesmen yesterday called on the government to appoint an independent board to conduct an inquiry into the way the forensic laboratory within the Malta National Laboratory has been administered over the past three years.

Calling the situation alarming, they said that if the government failed to do so the matter would be raised in the Public Accounts Committee.

Anglu Farrugia and Gavin Gulia, Labour's spokesmen for home affairs and justice respectively, held a press conference outside the Evans Labs in Valletta, where the forensic lab is situated.

The lab was closed by the Occupational Health and Safety Authority (OHSA) which issued a stop order on work carried out at the laboratories two weeks ago "in view of the serious risks to health".

Dr Gulia said Lm1.2 million had been invested in the lab and there was nothing to show for it.

Equipment had been bought and left for over two years in its original packaging and was only taken to the labs from the stevedores by the lab analysts themselves.

"These same analysts have to buy stationery and chemicals out of their own pockets and have often footed the bill to repair equipment they have to work with," Dr Gulia said.

The scanning electron microscope used in gunshot residue analysis had been out of action for 10 months, he added.

"The false ceilings are collapsing, the tiles are loose and woodworm is literally eating the doors. There are no fume cabinets to protect the analysts. There is no security and court exhibits cannot be preserved properly," he said.

Dr Gulia asked why the labs had been left in such a state and wondered whether certain court exhibits that could be potential evidence in criminal cases would deteriorate in the circumstances.

Dr Farrugia said the police were hampered in carrying out investigations into cases such as those of Gozitan lawyer Michael Grech, killed in May this year.

He said magistrates were keeping exhibits in their chambers as there was nowhere they could be stored and some needed to be kept in temperature-regulated environments.

"The situation is so alarming that a judge and two magistrates have visited the labs to see with their own eyes the state they are in," Dr Farrugia said.