Economy Minister Chris Cardona and parliamentary secretary Edward Zammit Lewis need to take political responsibility for the recent National Audit Office report that clearly stated that their involvement in a tender for legal services for the granting for concessions for the operation of casino licenses impinged on the transparency of the process, Opposition spokesman on economy Mario de Marco said this morning.
The minister had said he would take political responsibility on the matter, however, when the NAO report was published he just issued a statement welcoming the report.
This, Dr De Marco and spokeswoman for economic growth Kristy Debono said, was not taking political responsibility as it ignored the fact that the NAO flagged a number of shortcomings largely attributable to ministry that created a sense of ambiguity.
The minister should analyse the report and the shortcomings it highlighted and ensure that they did not happen again, they said.
The NAO, Dr de Marco said, also said that the reranking process detracted from the process's overall level of transparency.
Last July, the media reported that Dr Cardona had interfered to change the ranking of the selection board for the tender. The Opposition, through the public accounts committee, asked for an investigation by Auditor General who two days ago said clearly that intervention by the minister led to the process lacking transparency, Dr De Marco said.
In July, he added, Dr Cardona said he was ready to take political responsibility.
"The conclusion of the NAO justified the concerns of interference of the Opposition," he said.
He added that the main criticism of NAO was that the government decided on a number of criteria on issuing the tender but the government then decided to remove the experience criteria and there was no way to ensure that the bidder offering the lowest price was also offering quality.
After that, the selection board issued the ranking based only on price following the change of criteria. The ministry was not happy with the choice and interfered in the selection process, changed the rankings without an objective explanation as to why, he said.
He added that the Opposition was not criticising the fact that a tendering process had been issued or the firm that was selected. It was criticising the selection process.
MINISTER'S REACTION
In a reaction, Economic Affairs Minister Chris Cardona said that as he had already noted in his official reaction, the auditor had praised the ministry for having drawn up a selection process aimed at greater transparency by broadening the eligibility criteria and removing the need for past experience.
He reiterated that the ministry's intention was clear - to change the system adopted by the Nationalist government when such contracts were always given to the same people, in certain instances through a telephone call.
The minister said that the government respected the fact that the AG's office was a constitutional one and had already started working to implement the recommendations made.