MP to meet MITA board over irregularities claim

Updated:

Labour MP Evarist Bartolo said this afternoon that he would be meeting the board of MITA, the Malta Information Technology Agency, to explain why he had spoken of irregularities in the process for the granting of a contract for ICT diploma courses co-financed by the EU.

He was reacting to a statement by the Ministry of the Infrastructure and IT which accused him of interference in public procurement.

Mr Bartolo said that in the past few months he had also pointed to shortcomings in the granting of contracts to private IT centres for the provision of MCAST courses and these had been rectified, without the Education Ministry or MCAST accusing him of interference.

In its statement, the Infrastructure and IT Ministry accused Mr Bartolo of political interference after he wrote to the chairman of MITA over a call for tenders for the development and delivery of ICT Diploma courses for the Second Step Programme, which closed on June 30.

Mr Bartolo wrote that it was being said that a number of bids did not meet the conditions of the call for tenders but they had still been processed for adjudication instead of having been rejected. MITA Chairman, Claudio Grech, was called up to rectify matters by rejecting the bids which did not meet the requirements.

Mr Bartolo said he was not making his letter public in order to give time for Mr Grech to remedy matters, failing which he would make the case known to the public, the European Commission and the Public Accounts Committee at the end of the month.

The letter was sent by e-mail yesterday evening.

Mr Grech in reply said the MITA Board had evaluated the report of the adjudication board and the results of the calls for tender would be published within hours.

Mr Grech said neither he, nor any member of the board had sought to 'remedy matters' because they took their job seriously and followed procedures and regulations.

He said a copy of this correspondence was, however, being passed on to the IT Minister so that it could be presented to the Public Accounts Committee.

Mr Grech told Mr Bartolo that while he, as an MP, had every right to make public statements on public administration, he was very disappointed by serious allegations which he (Mr Bartolo) had already made about MITA last month.

In those statements Mr Bartolo had claimed that even before the technical evaluation of the proposed courses had been made, it was clear that a company headed by a person who enjoyed Minister Austin Gatt's confidence was being preferred. Dr Gatt is the minister responsible for MITA.

Mr Grech said MITA had not preferred any company over another and an examination of the adjudicating report did not indicate anything of what was being alleged.

Mr Grech invited Mr Bartolo for a meeting with the officers in charge so that they could give a full explanation and so that Mr Bartolo could clearly indicate who was committing the alleged irregularities.

He also promised disciplinary action should any irregularities surface.

The ministry, which published the correspondence, insisted that all politicians, and not just the government, should not interfere in public procurement.

Anybody who thought that an irregularity had taken place had a right to appeal according to law.