The company chosen to provide training courses leading to a diploma in information technology clearly enjoys the minister's trust, according to the Labour Party.

Highlighting what he claimed were irregularities in the process, spokesman Evarist Bartolo said it was clear the preferred company was administered by a person who enjoyed Minister Austin Gatt's confidence because it had been chosen before a technical evaluation of the course content was made.

He said all the applications for the €700,000 contract were considered even though regulations specified that only companies capable of offering the courses would be taken into consideration.

Among the applicant companies were those which offered very poor content that was not of the required level, some of which was identical for the different courses.

Dr Gatt was responsible for Malta Information Technology Agency, which had issued the call, he added.