(Adds reaction by Evarist Bartolo)
A police investigation requested by Labour MP Evarist Bartolo has concluded that no illegality or irregularity was committed by the selection board responsible for the granting of contracts by Mcast to private training providers for IT courses, the Education Ministry said.
Four persons from two private training providers are to be taken to court for allegedly making false declarations to a public authority when they submitted their tenders to the selection board, the ministry added.
“The only observation made by the police with regard to the selection board was that there was negligence which did not amount to a crime but should not be repeated,” the ministry said.
It added that the delay in the start of IT courses was not caused by Mcast, the Contracts Department or the Contracts Appeals Board. The appeals board could not consider the case before the files were released by the police after the investigation they were asked to carry out.
Now that the police investigation was over, the appeals board would announce its decision in the coming days.
Education Minister Dolores Cristina has instructed Mcast to ensure that the IT courses start as soon as the appeals board takes its decision.
Mr Bartolo in a counter-statement this afternoon said it was shameful that the Education Ministry was using the conclusions of the police investigation to hide the serious shortcomings of the selection board.
Mr Bartolo said that when the police concluded their investigations, they sought advice from the Office of the Attorney General on whether there were grounds for court action for criminal negligence. It was not unheard of for the police to wish to proceed but for the AG’s office to decide otherwise on a legal technicality.
Whatever technicality was brought up, however, nothing could hide the fact that the selection board altered the marks given in its first report, destroyed its first report and recommended the granting of the contract to all the companies that submitted a bid, even those, Mr Bartolo said, who did not meet requirements.
Were it up to the selection board, the contract would have been awarded to all the bidders, even those who, according to the police themselves, made false declarations about their facilities.
Mr Bartolo said he hoped that the Ministry of Education would learn from this case so that matters could be handled more seriously in the future.
The ministry said it wanted to again assure the students that they would be given the same standard of instruction and the same hours as the regular Mcast courses.