Company files judicial protest against Chris Cardona over misappropriation claims

Marsec-XL Foundation, a public-private partnership accused by Chris Cardona of having misappropriated €2 million in public funds, has filed a judicial protest against the economy minister for claiming that the company's two principals had failed to make proper use of public funds they were awarded.

Cardona had said on TVM’s Realtà that the police were investigating Marine Software Engineering Cluster of Excellence (MARSEC-XL) over allegedly misappopriating €2 million in public funds.

Marsec-XL has now filed a judicial protest, disputing the minister’s claims and insisting that his comments had damaged the company's reputation.

“The judicial protest is being filed in light of Chris Cardona’s comments, which we find to be incorrect both at fact and at law. In addition, these comments are damaging to our reputation and the reputation of the internationally recognised MARSEC-XL Brand,” president Krystyna Wojnarowicz said.

While rebutting the reports of misappropriation, the company insisted that the foundation never received government funds, and conversely, the funds referred to by Cardona were received by MI-SE@Malta Foundation. “This was allocated as seed funding in the time period 2008 to 2013 and did not exceed the amount of €1.3 million.”

It also claimed that the spending was closely monitored by the MI-­‐SE@MALTA Foundation council, and that the funding was being forwarded in quarterly tranches according to a transparent, seed funding policy in place, and based on performance as documented in regular reports to the relevant ministry.

“The funding was used in its totality for research and education purposes within marine software engineering, including wages for the Maltese workforce, and training and education of the Maltese workforce nationally and abroad. The use of government funds in no way constituted any form of misappropriation,” the applicants argued.