A company set up as a public-private partnership two years ago has denied claims by Economic Services Minister Chris Cardona that is misappropriated a €2m industrial grant.

Dr Cardona said on TVM yesterday that the police have been asked to investigate how a €2 million grant by the former administration to a company were not used as they should have, and disappeared.

The police were called in after an initial investigation by the Internal Audit and Investigations Department of the Office of the Prime Minister.

Dr Cardona said the grant had been given to Marsec XL, a marine software navigation company formed by the government in January 2008. 

The audit report was concluded last week.

Dr Cardona said on TVM that this case amounted to alleged misappropriation of funds, which the government wanted to recover.

However, Swedish company co-founder Geir Faderhus told timesofmalta.com this morning that the former government's grant had been of €1.3m and not €2m and the funds were used on the local workforce in agreement with the former government.

He denied that there ever was misappropriation and said that the audit officials he had spoken to had also confirmed to him that nothing wrong was found, other that administrative matters.

He said the company had been very successful and the technology it had developed had been deployed all over the world. 

Another co-founder, Krystyna Wojnarowicz, said the funds were given in tranches on the basis of the government's performance which was all documented and reviewed by the government. She said some of the funds had been used on the training of the Maltese workforce abroad, mostly in Germany.