Police probe suspected health contract leak

A MITTS employee is helping the police in investigations into a suspected leak of confidential information during the evaluation process of tenders for the supply of an integrated health information system, the government said last night.

"In order not to prejudice the police investigations, the (IT) ministry will be asking the evaluation board to suspend its activities until further notice," the government said in an official statement.

It said the Malta Information Technology and Training Services (MITTS) employee helping the police was acting as a technical consultant in the evaluation process.

A call for tenders for an integrated health information system for the Ministry for Health, the Elderly and Community Care was issued in May 2005. The Investment, Industry and IT Ministry was charged with launching a technical evaluation committee in connection with the call. The committee included representatives of MITTS, the Health Ministry and Mater Dei Hospital.

The government said the evaluation process was in its final stages.

The committee chairman last month told IT Minister Austin Gatt he suspected that confidential information could have been communicated to the bidders without authorisation.

Dr Gatt, in turn, informed Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, who agreed that the minister should ask the Police Commissioner to look into his suspicions.

According to information on the IT Ministry's website, the system is intended to support all clinical, non-clinical and administrative functions of the Mater Dei and St Luke's hospitals as well as the remainder of Malta's public health service. It is intended to help the 6,000-odd public health employees care for their patients while allowing hospital managers, health care professionals and researchers to digest and analyse statistical data that emerges from the digital recording of patients' case histories.