A man accused of corruption in the installation of the Mater Dei IT system has been acquitted with the court ruling that he had given the government the best product he could, as it was only at the stage of Core Evaluation Committee that the software was revealed to be beset by problems and would be dangerous for the Government to accept that company's contract.
Noel Xuereb from St Julian's, a MITTS employee who had been seconded to government as a core information systems manager and who also served on the tender's evaluation committee, and Pierre Mercieca of Attard, a consultant to the Italian Inso SpA consortium that eventually won the €30 million tender, had been charged with several counts of bribery, corruption and embezzlement related to the hospital project.
The Court noted that the case had begun because of suspicions held by Claudio Grech, then Chairman of the Core Evaluation Committee, which had been given the job of choosing and introducing an IT system at Mater Dei Hospital. The suspicions had been aroused late in the negotiations and after the original tender winner was excluded due to financial and legal difficulties abroad which had been identified by Xuereb.
Grech had gone to the police with his suspicions together with then Minister Austin Gatt and an investigation, which was made without a magisterial inquiry, seized a number of documents and computers from the accused.
The police concluded that Mercieca had possession of documentation relating to the tender process with comments from Xuereb, which they took to mean as implying a breach of secrecy in the tender.
The conclusion had been reached because Mercieca had allegedly provided a fireplace to Xuereb, allegedly as a gift for the help he had given Mercieca as the preferred bidder for the IT services.
The evidence, however, showed otherwise, observed the court, noting that none of the charges based on Grech's suspicions was proven.
The fireplace in question was not, in fact, a gift but had been purchased by Xuereb who had documentation to prove this. Xuereb had been fulfilling his role as Core Project Manager by ensuring that the persons making offers to Government should actually know what the government wanted by ensuring that the final product satisfies specifications made by consultants.
Magistrate Francesco Depasquale concluded that the evidence showed that Xuereb had been doing his duty.
The evidence showed that Grech, as chairman of the Core Evaluation Committee, had chosen to impose new conditions on the new preferred bidder, against the advice of the Director of Contracts.
At one point, Grech insisted that the preferred bidder should produce a bank guarantee of €4 million even though this was not in the original tender requirements.
It was only through Noel Xuereb's insistence with Pierre Mercieca that the tenderer accepted to give a bank guarantee, albeit for a lower amount, despite their original protests.
Despite all additional requests having been settled with the preferred bidder, and when the contract was about to be signed, Grech had suddenly made his suspicions known and together with IT minister Austin Gatt, had asked the police to investigate.
The government suspended and eventually cancelled the tender as a result of this. It was then replaced by a much smaller project which again involved the company that had originally been eliminated.
The court said that the evidence showed there had been no act of corruption by Noel Xuereb and Pierre Mercieca and there was no private gain.
The court said that there had been correspondence by all parties, including Claudio Grech himself.
No tender secrets had been disclosed by Xuereb, and Mercieca had never attempted to corrupt anyone. Both men were therefore acquitted.
Lawyers Joe Giglio appeared for Noel Xuereb and Manuel Mallia for Pierre Mercieca
from The Malta Independent https://ift.tt/2HT2i2b
via IFTTT
No comments:
Post a Comment