Web developers who designed the Lands Authority website, through which sensitive data was published online after a major security flaw, have been awarded contracts and direct orders worth over €200,000 since 2013, Times of Malta has found.
Apart from its work for the Lands Authority, Webee Ltd has been awarded at least nine contracts totalling €202,839 since the Labour Party was elected to government in 2013. Most were direct orders.
The Lands Authority website made headlines last week after a joint investigation by Times of Malta and The Shift News revealed how thousands of documents, including ID cards and other e-mails, entrusted to the authority, could be searched and downloaded through Google and other search engines.
The Data Protection Commissioner is investigating the breach, as is the Lands Authority. Webee Ltd has insisted that it did not work on the business application code subject to the breach.
Webee Ltd has been awarded at least nine contracts totalling €202,839
Details on the latest batch of contracts awarded to the company emerged from this week’s Government Gazette containing a breakdown of all direct orders awarded by the Finance and Administration Directorate within the Office of the Prime Minister.
According to the Gazette, between July and December last year, Webee Ltd was awarded three direct orders by the OPM directorate, including one for €39,417 for work related to the Notte Bianca and another of €38,135 for the 2018 Budget.
The developers were also given a direct order worth €13,250 for the creation of a “new website”.
No information on the nature of this website was available.
According to publicly available information, during the same period, the company was awarded a fourth direct order of €34,000 by the Education Ministry for software development services and another by the Economy Ministry worth €9,500 for the creation of an application.
In the preceding months, between January and June of last year, Webee Ltd was tasked with developing a campaign for the first four years of the last legislature. For this, the developers were awarded a contract of €33,898 by the OPM.
In 2013, a direct order of €6,844 was awarded to the company by the then Mepa for “interactive dissemination of services”.
Meanwhile, earlier in 2018, Webee Ltd was also awarded two separate contracts – one by Identity Malta for the redesigning of its website, worth €18,800, and another of €8,995 by the Economy Ministry for the development of a mobile application.
Apart from its work for government entities, Webee Ltd’s portfolio includes the Labour Party’s website as well as the Marigold Foundation, chaired by the Prime Minister’s wife Michelle Muscat.