The company owned by Health Minister Chris Fearne’s chief of staff handles the “maintenance” of an IT system at Mater Dei Hospital, it has emerged.
Times of Malta reported recently there was pressure to approve the renewal of a lucrative IT contract at Mater Dei by a company owned by the husband of Carmen Sammut, Mr Fearne’s top aide.
The company, Cursor Ltd, has been supplying services to the hospital since 2013 and is registered at the same address as Mall Systems Ltd, another IT company owned by Ms Sammut. Both companies have been the recipients of a number of other government jobs.
After she joined Mr Fearne’s secretariat last year, the Health Ministry had insisted with this newspaper that Ms Sammut had resigned from her post as director of the company but made no mention of the fact that she was still the sole shareholder.
While Cursor Ltd operates the patient administration system, known as CPAS, Ms Sammut’s company is responsible for its maintenance.
The information on the two IT companies was supplied in parliament this week by Mr Fearne in reply to a parliamentary question tabled by Nationalist MP Simon Busuttil. The former Opposition leader also asked for the amounts paid to both Cursor Ltd and Mall Systems Ltd but the minister said such information was of a “commercial nature”.
Asked whether this was a case of conflict of interest, a Health Ministry spokeswoman reiterated that Ms Sammut had resigned from her post as director of Mall Systems Ltd. This, she insisted, had occurred “prior to her engagement with the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister”.
“Ms Sammut currently holds no post with this company. Similarly, she initiated a share transfer procedure prior to her engagement at the ministry,” the spokeswoman told Times of Malta.
According to the companies’ registry, Ms Sammut is still listed as the sole shareholder of Mall Systems Ltd. Although company documents confirm she had stepped down as director, there are no documents indicating that the shares had been transferred.
No reply was forthcoming from the Health Ministry when this newspaper asked about this matter.
Mr Fearne has defended the appointment of Ms Sammut as chief of staff insisting she was not directly involved in the IT business.