The police are to be asked to investigate alleged cases of abuse in the defunct smart card system, Education Minister Evarist Bartolo said yesterday.
The decision follows the findings of an inquiry ordered recently by his ministry in the wake of a 2010 report by the Auditor General that had flagged up a number of irregularities.
Mr Bartolo did not go into detail about the abuses uncovered by the inquiry except to give a couple of examples. These involved students redeeming their grant in cash from a number of authorised retailers and the spending of their funds on non-educational items such as medicines, car hire and mobile phones.
The smart card, which used to be topped up with a financial grant, had been intended to support sixth form and university students in the purchase of academic materials.
It was abolished by the government last September because it was deemed too costly to administer and did nothing to deter abuse. Students are now being given the equivalent grant as a lump sum. This measure, which benefits about 18,000 students, costs the government €7.5 million a year.
At least now we are not spending money to administer a failed system
Authorised retailers who had just joined the smart card scheme had criticised the decision to abolish it, saying they would not be able to recoup the roughly €500 they had spent on the device used to process smart card transactions.
Addressing a news conference at the Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises (GRTU) in Valletta, Mr Bartolo yesterday announced that about 135 retailers who joined the scheme in 2013 and 2014 would be compensated.
Those who joined in 2013 will receive €300 for every device they acquired and those who joined a year later will get €400.
The abolition of smart cards prompted criticism that the government had taken a defeatist approach, removing all checks and balances that existed to ensure the taxpayer’s money was not being misused.
However, Dr Bartolo yesterday insisted that the smart card had only served to increase administrative expenses, as the abuse persisted.“At least now we are not spending money to administer a failed system,” he said.