Police raid bidder's offices

Inso Spa's offices in Malta were raided by the police at the end of last week and computers and documents were retrieved in connection with an investigation into a suspected leak of confidential information.

The suspected leak is in connection with the evaluation of tenders for the supply of an integrated health information system (IHIS) for the Health Ministry. Inso, an Italian company, had been awarded a Lm25 million medical equipment contract for the new Mater Dei Hospital in 2002 but the award was contested by two other competing consortia.

A committee was set up to hear the appeal and it annulled the decision of the director general of contracts to award the contract to Inso.

However, the tender was eventually re-awarded to Inso.

The Malta Information Technology and Training Services Ltd (MITTS) said yesterday it had suspended a project manager until further notice in view of the investigations relating to possible irregularities in the procurement process for the tender in question.

The person is thought to be the MITTS employee helping the police in their investigations. He was acting as a technical consultant in the evaluation process.

MITTS said that in view of the investigations and in line with standing procedures for public officers, the employee was suspended until further notice.

The government said on Tuesday that there was a suspected leak of confidential information during the evaluation process concerning tenders for the supply of the system.

The evaluation board has been asked to suspend its activities until further notice.

The system is intended to support all clinical, non-clinical and administrative functions of the Mater Dei and St Luke's hospitals as well as the remainder of the country's public health service.

Asked how the investigation will affect Mater Dei Hospital and whether it will still be opened on the scheduled date of July 1, a spokesman for the Parliamentary Secretary at the Finance Ministry, Tonio Fenech, said he was not aware of any effect on the hospital construction project pending the findings of the investigation.

He said there were no plans to change the scheduled opening day as the impact of the investigation findings were unknown.