More than half the budget allocated in tenders to equipment for a new university solar laboratory has gone to one company, which is the subsidiary of a group whose chairman is the lab’s lead scientist.
Evolve has been awarded more than €1.5 million worth of tenders for the supply of lab equipment. This amounts to more than half the value of tenders for equipment issued so far.
The company is a subsidiary of the group Attard and Co. The subsidiary’s chairman is Luciano Mule Stagno, who is also associate professor at the Institute for Sustainable Energy, where he managed to secure €4 million in EU funding for the solar research laboratory at the University of Malta’s campus in Marsaxlokk.
Yesterday, Prof. Mule Stagno insisted there was no conflict of interest because he had not made any financial gain from the procurement process.
Read more in the Times of Malta.