Mount Carmel Hospital issued a direct contract to hire 60 people for clerical work but ended up engaging 134, with many actually performing maintenance work and security duties, an investigation by the Auditor-General has found.
Furthermore, in some cases, government officials were directly involved in referring individuals to the service provider so that they may be engaged and deployed at Mount Carmel Hospital under this contract.
In a report presented to the parliament, Auditor-General Charles Deguara said his investigation had found irregular engagements, contractual design flaws and a weak contract management function.
The National Audit Office (NAO) said the hospital was acquiring these services through a one year negotiated procedure, since a new tender was not awarded before another contract’s expiry in July 2018.
It was extremely difficult to dismiss a number of non-performers, given that it itself had referred them for engagement"
"Although the contract under review originally called for the deployment of approximately 60 full-time equivalents (FTEs), 134 FTEs were deployed as at September 2018," it said.
"NAO found that 47 of these outsourced personnel, although engaged through a contract for clerical services, have been deployed to carry out non-clerical responsibilities, such as maintenance and security duties.
"This audit has also shown that there have been instances in which government officials were directly involved in sourcing and referring individuals to the service provider so that they may be engaged and deployed at MCH under this contract."
While those people engaged through this contract and deployed to work as clerks were delivering an acceptable level of work, some of those deployed to carry out non-clerical duties were not meeting the expected level of service.
But the hospital's management had told the office that it was extremely difficult to dismiss a number of non-performers, given that it itself had referred them for engagement to the service provider, the audit office said.
Cleaning services contract
The audit office also made a number of observations concerning a contract for cleaning services at Mount Carmel.,
It said the service was procured through a call for quotations even though it significantly exceeded the financial threshold for this method of procurement. No formal and documented contract was in place.
As in the clerical services contract, a number of deployed personnel carried out tasks not related to cleaning duties and the output of the outsourced personnel as well as the quality of the cleaning products being used were 'questionable'.
Read the full report at www.nao.gov.mt