The Italian company RCS, whose tender offer for a Lawful Interception System in Malta was rejected by the Malta Communications Authority, is claiming that during the tender process its sole competitor for the tender, Verint, sold Go Mobile an upgrade of its lawful interception system.

RCS has stated in court that this gave Verint an unfair advantage because it put it in a stronger position and created a stronger relationship between the Malta Security Services, the ultimate destination of the system, and Verint.

Besides, had the tender been awarded to RCS, considering that the system will be paid for by the network operators (Maltacom, Go Mobile and Vodafone), this would have meant that Go Mobile had acquired a solution that was not compatible with it.

MCA issued a Request for Information for a Unified Lawful Interception Solution on 27 August 2003. The final call for expressions of interest was issued on 25 May 2005. Various bidders expressed interest, including Siemens, Group 2000, Accuris, Viroc, Computer Solutions, APCO and Verint and RCS. MCA later shortlisted Verint and RCS. An MCA delegation visited RCS and its customers in Naples which use a system three times bigger than the one to be used in Malta.

On 29 December, RCSD was informed its offer had been rejected and that by Verint accepted even though RCS’s offer was cheaper than Verint’s and its technical offer met all requirements. MCA informed RCS that the offer by Verint was ‘holistically’ superior.

Surprisingly, the purchase agreement was not signed between MCA and Verint but by Malta Security Services and Verint even though the request for proposals had been made by MCA. MCA also claimed the procedure was not governed by government financial regulations.

Finally, RCS has stated, the Italian Prosecutor Offices are renting from RCS not just the solution but a complete service... This service could only be performed by a fully trustworthy company. “None of our competitors could claim such level of trust. Though Verint is a player in the LI market, it never rented solution and sold services in Italy. Furthermore, Verint has acquired a bad reputation in Europe and in the USA.”