I refer to the article entitled ‘Malta reluctant to hire people with disabilities’ (The Sunday Times of Malta, March 30).

The National Commission Persons with Disability (KNPD) is a firm believer in supported employment; in fact, its own secretariat provides supported employment to a number of its employees.

With regard to the initiative undertaken by the Malta Federation of Organisations Persons with Disabilities, KNPD has showed its support and KNPD chairman Oliver Scicluna, then serving as deputy chairman, had attended seminars delivered by Michael Evans, organised by the same federation.

The course, delivered by Evans, was aimed at service providers. In fact, the article refers to organisations such as Inspire, ETC and Mcast. Their role within the disability sector is to provide a service.

On the other hand, KNPD is bound by law, namely the Equal Opportunities Act (Persons with Disability) 2000 to assume the role of a watchdog, thus it is duty-bound to “monitor the provision of services”.

It would have been quite inappropriate of KNPD to attend a training course aimed at service providers when its role in the disability sector is that of monitoring the services they provide.

While reiterating its support for laudable initiatives such as those taken by the federation, KNPD asserts that it did not take part in the training referred to in the article not out of apathy or lack of interest, but for the sake of proper institutional behaviour.