Two men acquitted of corruption charges in hospital IT tender

A public official and a private consultant accused of corruption in the procurement of the Mater Dei Hospital IT system have been acquitted of all charges.

In a ruling delivered on Monday, Magistrate Francesco Depasquale ruled there was no proof to substantiate the suspicions raised by then evaluation committee chairperson, Claudio Grech, now a Nationalist MP.

Noel Xuereb from St Julians, an employee with government IT agency MITTS, who served on the tender’s evaluation committee, and Pierre Mercieca of Attard, a consultant to the Italian firm Inso SpA, were charged with several counts of bribery, corruption and embezzlement related to the hospital project. Inso eventually won the €30 million tender.

The court noted that the case begun because of suspicions held by Grech, who had been given the job of choosing and introducing an IT system at Mater Dei Hospital.

Grech raised suspicions 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 conducted 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 police also believed that Mercieca allegedly provided a fireplace to Xuereb as a gift for the help he had received as 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 were proven.

The fireplace in question was not 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 actually knew what was expected of them. His job was to ensure that the final product would satisfy specifications made by consultants.

Claudio Grech was the chairperson of the evaluation committee tasked to choose the tender winner had flagged suspicions late in the process

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 Xuereb's insistence with 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 the evidence showed there had been no act of corruption by Xuereb and Mercieca and there was no private gain.

The court said that there had been correspondence by all parties, including Grech himself.

No tender secrets had been disclosed by Xuereb, and Mercieca had never attempted to corrupt anyone.

Both men were therefore acquitted.

Lawyers Manuel Mallia appeared for Pierre Mercieca and Joe Giglio for Noel Xuereb.