The government has just set up a security service company, Fort Security Services to provide security for government companies which are being liquidated.

Economic Services Minister Chris Cardona told Nationalist MPs Beppe Fenech Adami, Jason Azzopardi and Mario de Marco that it was too early to say how many people would be engaged by the new company.

Economic Services Minister Chris Cardona

Asked whether the workers would be engaged from within or from outside the public service, Dr Cardona said the government was free to engage whoever if had confidence in as long as they had the necessary qualifications.

Asked if it was normal that the shareholding of the company to be held by the government except one share held by an 18-year-old representing Mimcol (the government holding company), Dr Cardona said age was irrelevant as long as the person concerned was legally qualified.

Dr de Marco asked whether the new company would compete with private companies, and whether calls for security services  would continue to be issued.

Dr Cardona said the company would save money normally used to engage private firms, which in the past used to be friends of friends.

However this company would fill a gap in providing security where it was not provided before, such as the site of the former Malta Shipbuilding, currently under liquidation, where substantial theft had been made.

The company would provide internal services within the ministries and it was up to ministers to decide if there was need for a public call for security services.   

However the setting up of this company would lead to value for money and also deter precarious working conditions.

The government, he said was not on a new trajectory compared to what used to take place in the past. One only needed to see what used to happen at the Malta Freeport Corporation, where over 70 security personnel were engaged by the government, often people who were close to the minister.

Dr Fenech Adami asked how many people had been engaged to provide security at Malta Shipbuilding, how they were selected, and how many were from the minister's district.

The minister said the same procedures as in the past were being followed.