Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Abela said this evening he finds no problem with the Auditor-General investigating a direct order worth €880,000 given by his ministry for the replacement of IT wiring and infrastructure at Corradino Correctional Facility.

Yesterday, Justice Shadow Minister Jason Azzopardi, said that the Opposition would ask the Auditor General for such an investigation.

Speaking in parliament, Mr Abela said the Auditor General would find all the cooperation needed from the ministry's officials.

Mr Abela explained that GO plc had for a long number of years provided integrated telecommunications services to the Corradino Correctional Facility. This happened even under the previous administration.

He said that in 2015, a Martin Scicluna Report recommended that the Ministry urgently see to the IT services and CCTV systems, such was their dire situation

GO used to sub-contract its prison IT services but some time ago it informed the authorities that it would not be able to continue because of bigger contracts it had in hand.

It was from this point, Mr Abela said, that the company mentioned by Dr Azzopardi continued working at the CCF. 

Earlier, Mr Abela announced that between 2013 and this year, 406 prison inmates had applied for parole, of whom 71 were accepted.

He also said that while in 2009, only 252 inmates were urine tested for drugs, the number of tests shot to 1,846 last year.

Concluding, Mr Abela appealed to the Opposition to be more responsible and stop its negative stance towards anything that the government does.