It was personal vendetta, suspect tells police

A magistrate was told yesterday it was personal vendetta and not monitory gain that drove a part-time employee of a company, bidding for a contract to install an IT system at Mater Dei Hospital, to approach a member of the tender adjudication board.

Assistant Police Commissioner Michael Cassar testified before Magistrate Jacqueline Padovani that Pierre Mercieca was a part-time employee with Inso, one of the bidders for the new hospital IT contract.

Mr Cassar explained that, when questioned over the alleged bribery of a member of the adjudication board, Mr Mercieca said he had acted out of vendetta.

He said he wanted to get back at the Demajo Group of Companies, that were also involved in bidding for the tender, because they had taken over his chocolate-importing business - that yielded an annual turnover of some Lm80,000.

The officer was testifying in the compilation of evidence against Noel Xuereb, 42, of St Julians, and Mr Mercieca 47, of Attard.

Mr Xuereb, an investment systems officer at the Ministry of IT, is pleading not guilty to accepting bribes, embezzlement, taking a private interest in the adjudication of tenders and disclosing professional secrets when he served as a public officer on and before January 14.

Mr Mercieca is charged with bribing Mr Xuereb and with complicity.

Mr Cassar explained that, after being informed about an alleged bribery case, he and his men carried out searches in the residences of Mr Xuereb and Mr Mercieca.

They seized documents and computers that were later tested by officials from the cyber crime unit. The two men were then taken to the police headquarters and investigations started.

It resulted that Mr Xuereb was a core investment systems officer at the Ministry of IT and was a member of the adjudication board for the hospital IT tender.

Mr Mercieca was a part-time employee with Inso that formed part of the consortium AME that was tendering for the contract.

The witness said that, after being cautioned, both men were questioned on the matter last month.

Initially, Mr Xuereb denied passing on any information to Mr Mercieca but he eventually confirmed that he had handed over some documents and had also given Mr Mercieca his opinion on the tender.

The two men were then released on police bail, pending further investigations.

Meanwhile, the results from the analysis of the computers, belonging to Mr Xuereb and Mr Mercieca, revealed that the two had been corresponding regularly via e-mail. The analysis also showed that Mr Xuereb had e-mailed Mr Mercieca documents in connection with the tender. The documents included 16 pages from the tender documents of AME's only competitor iSoft.

Mr Xuereb and Mr Mercieca were called back to the police headquarters last week.

Faced with the evidence resulting from the computer analysis, Mr Xuereb released a statement in which he admitted to e-mailing documents to Mr Mercieca and even handing him hard copies of certain documents.

He explained that he met Mr Mercieca at a barbecue in January 2006, soon after the call for tenders had been issued. Eventually, Mr Mercieca began to contact him, initially for clarification. But he then started asking for advice and documentation.

Mr Xuereb said he had even spoken directly to the director of AME in Austria, Heins Smidek.

When asked why he had passed on copies of the documents, he insisted he was not paid for it, adding there were more important things in life than money.

Mr Cassar added that the police learnt that Mr Xuereb had recently installed a fireplace, worth about Lm1,500, which he obtained from Mr Mercieca. Mr Xuereb said he had not paid Mr Mercieca as yet as he was still waiting for a part to be installed. It later turned out that Mr Xuereb had installed the fireplace.

Mr Xuereb even confirmed being a signatory to a code of conduct in which he had pledged not to communicate with tendering companies, unless through the chairman. He said he felt he had no conflict of interest.

Police Inspector Ian Abdilla confirmed the testimony given by Mr Cassar adding that, although initially Mr Mercieca did not want to speak to the police, when he was taken to the Police Commissioner's office he broke down and explained what had led to his actions.

Mr Abdilla said Mr Mercieca told the police he had acted out of vendetta towards the Demajo Group of Companies, because they had taken over his chocolate importation business and ruined his life.

When he found out that AME's competitor were iSoft, represented in Malta by a company that forms part of the Demajo Group, he planned his vendetta. Mr Mercieca told the police he was not interested in the hospital tender. All he wanted was to ensure that Demajo would not win the contract. So he approached Mr Xuereb and told him about the whole matter.

Under cross-examination, the officer said the tender had been issued on January 18, 2006, and two companies - AME and iSoft - bid for it. Soon after, most members on the tender adjudication board, including Mr Xuereb, voted iSoft as the preferred bidder.

However, between June and July 2006 site visits were carried out and members of the adjudication board realised that iSoft was not as promising as it seemed to be on paper.

Then, in September, a report confirmed that iSoft had gone bankrupt and AME was declared preferred bidder.

At the end of the sitting both men were granted bail against a deposit of Lm1,000 and a personal guarantee of Lm10,000 each.

Police Inspectors Joseph Cordina and Ian Abdilla are prosecuting.

Lawyers Joseph Giglio, Emmanuel Mallia and Giannella Caruana Curran are defence counsel.