More than €1.1 million have been spent on emergency security measures at the St Vincent de Paul home for the elderly since the disappearance of a resident on June 28, Times of Malta has learnt.

The number of security officers guarding doors at the home has more than tripled since the incident and became a lucrative opportunity for five security firms engaged to supply guards for entrances and exits.

The increased security was introduced following the disappearance of Carmelo Fino, an 83-year-old dementia sufferer who was placed in an open ward and who left the facility in the middle of the night on June 28.

Fino, known as Karmenu and Charlie, was captured on CCTV leaving the Luqa home at 3am. His decomposing body was found under a tree in Birżebbuġa, almost eight kilometres away, on July 14.

An inquiry, headed by Judge Geoffrey Valenzia, pinned the responsibility for Fino’s disappearance on the staff on duty that night.

Four security officers, two carers and a nurse at the St Vincent de Paul Residence – all Maltese nationals – have since been suspended on half pay upon the instructions of the Public Service Commission.

Another carer, who was employed by a contractor and assigned to the care home, has been replaced by another employee.

Almost 40 security officers had been added to the 20 who had already been working at the care home, with the administration scrambling to beef up security procedures to avoid a repeat.

Contracts to be renewed 

A spokesperson for Active Ageing Ministry said that the five security firms had been given three-month contracts to provide emergency security following the green light obtained from the Contracts Department.

Signal 8 and CAMC were granted contracts worth €270,000 each, G4S was granted a contract worth €245,368, Executive Services Limited a contract worth €196,295 and JF Security a contract worth €147,221.

The spokesperson said the contracts were now in the process of being renewed for another two months.

Times of Malta reported earlier this month how several elderly residents at the home for the elderly believed the increased security measures at the institution had turned the place into a prison.

“It feels like I’m spending the last few days, months or years of my life in a prison without committing a crime,” one resident had told Times of Malta.

“There are security officers everywhere you look, at every door and every entrance and exit point,” another elderly resident added.

“Sometimes to get out you need to pass by three or four of them before reaching the gate. I know they’re here for our own safety and I appreciate that, but this is overkill.”

The claims were contested by Active Ageing Minister Jo-Etienne Abela, who instead said changes to the care home had turned it into a “safer place”.  

Abela had also insisted that the disappearance of Fino from St Vincent de Paul was “not a system failure”.

The increased presence of security guards was just one of a raft of measures to increase security at the home, with elderly residents ordered not to leave their wards, go for a walk or attend mass unless accompanied by a nurse, carer or relative.

Residents had lambasted the new strict measures, saying that their privacy and freedom had been stripped away from them as they are being placed under constant watch.

Since then, a multidisciplinary assessment has been put in place and some 100 residents have been given what is known as a free pass with which they can walk around the facility freely and can also leave the care home as long as they state where they are going.