At least one person - an official of the Examinations Department - is to be taken to court and accused of exam fraud following changes in the markings of the exam for executive officers in the civil service, Education Minister Evarist Bartolo said this morning.

He told a press conference that the exam was held in January. There were 799 candidates of whom 671 passed. When the results were finalised on February 15, the correctors were told that too many had passed and results were therefore to be reduced by five marks.

Subsequently, a second order was issued for a further reduction of 14 marks.

However it had resulted to investigators that the marks were not reduced for all exam candidates, and some had their marks actually increased by an much as 26 points, Mr Bartolo said. They included two people who were employed in the Examinations Division. 

The corrected results will be issued next week.

Mr Bartolo said the alarm was raised by a person involved in the marking of the papers. He said the person to be arraigned was not one of the correctors.

He said the Examinations Board would be asked to evaluate the administration of public exams and make recommendations to safeguard the integrity of public exams.

He said he had issued instructions for exam results not to be available in his ministry to avoid 'temptations'.