The Labour Party this afternoon demanded an inquiry into the process being used by MCAST for the selection of private companies which will train some 600 ICT students.

Education spokesman Evarist Bartolo said the selection process should be stopped until an inquiry established whether it was true that of five companies which had submitted applications, four did not achieve the benchmarks set by the selection committee but the selection committee had still recommended that they should be selected as well.

He also asked whether it was true that the selection committee eventually changed its original report so that all applicants were shown as having achieved the threshold.

He asked whether it was true that some of these companies deserved to be disqualified as they did not meet established criteria.

Mr Bartolo said the inquiry should also establish if the selection committee included persons who were still on probation at MCAST and thus very vulnerable to pressures on how they should decide.

It was important, Mr Bartolo said, that the companies selected to provide these courses were serious, well equipped and licensed.