As the police investigation into allegations of leaks from the committee set up to evaluate the e30 million Mater Dei integrated health information system continues to widen in scope, rival bidder iSoft is confident that, if awarded the contract at the end of the day, the setback would not necessarily imperil the government’s target opening date of 1 July.

In the latest procurement scandal involving the Mater Dei hospital, a Malta Information Technology and Training Services (MITTS) employee is being investigated by the police over suspected leaks of confidential tender information to one of the bidders. The police have also raided the offices of Inso Malta, which is a minority shareholder in the AME consortium, and confiscated a number of computers. The police have also questioned a person involved with Inso Malta.

And while there has been no shortage of speculation over the identity of the individuals being investigated by the police for the alleged tender fraud, this newspaper is reliably informed that the MITTS employee in question, where he served as a project manager, also worked at the IT, Investments and Industry Ministry as an external consultant – which was tasked with setting up the evaluation committee and was involved in the National Euro Changeover Committee’s IT Taskforce.

At the time of the alleged leak, the individual was acting as a technical consultant for the evaluating team and is said to have been deeply involved in the adjudication process. The name of the individual rumoured to be the source of the leak, has also been removed from the Ministry’s website, where he was previously listed as the core information systems manager within the ICT Government Unit.

This newspaper is also reliably informed that the implicated Inso official, despite protestations from Inso Malta that the person in question was a part-time external consultant simply making use of Inso’s office space, is, in fact, heavily involved with Inso’s operations at Mater Dei and is the lead representative of the AME consortium.

Neither individual was, however, reachable for comment yesterday.

The activities of the evaluation committee, meanwhile, have been suspended “until further notice” so as not to compromise police investigations. A decision on the contract is already long overdue and, while the government reiterated on Tuesday that the evaluation process is in its final stages, the suspension of the adjudicating committee’s activities until, presumably, the wrapping up of the police investigation, could very well imperil the government’s plans for cutting the ribbon at the Mater Dei threshold in less than five and a half months’ time.

Contacted yesterday by The Malta Independent on Sunday, an iSoft spokesperson explained that as matters stand, the company would need to be allowed a minimum of six months in which to complete phase one of the project, which would see the system up and running and which would include the implementation in operational areas such as radiology, laboratories, and the time-consuming Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) process of digitising the hospital’s voluminous files.

But with an ongoing police investigation and the tender still to be awarded, that would imply the contact having to be handed over by the beginning of February.

The spokesperson added, however, that if such a decision were to be reached by April, at the absolute latest, the company would be able to have the system up and running by the target date provided that extra resources are dedicated to the project and that the implementation plan, which has already provided for a certain “level of comfort”, were tweaked.

The spokesperson added that while the company has not been contacted by the Maltese authorities regarding the latest developments, it has every reason to be confident that the Maltese authorities will handle the matter with the utmost professionalism.

“Throughout the entire procurement process, we have seen nothing but professionalism from the Maltese authorities and this matter should be no different. The Maltese procurement process has been one of the longest and most in-depth the company has worked on to date,” he explained.

On the ongoing investigations, he added that he was “surprised” when reading about the developments in the Maltese press since, till then, it seemed that the process had been completely on the up and up and that it had been conducted as such from day one by the Maltese authorities.

He also cited the tender’s documentation, which had stipulated that the bidders were to have no contact with individuals involved in the adjudication process – an instruction he says the company had followed to the letter.

And while AME appeared to have been deemed favourites by the evaluating committee, this latest turn of events, however, could very well give a clear advantage to the bidder not implicated in the leak, if the police establish information had actually been leaked to an individual connected to the AME bid.

In late October, the government announced it had issued a letter of intent to the AME consortium, indicating that it was being considered as the preferred bidder for the contract.

The government, however, had not decided in finality and had very much left its options open. In a statement, in fact, the government had stipulated that the issuing of a letter of intent “does not constitute an award of the contract”.

The letter of intent, according to the government, did not imply an end to the competitive selection process, while it also clarified that iSoft had not been eliminated from the process.

The government had added, “In fact, both bids have been deemed to be acceptable for the fulfilment of the government’s requirements. The process would be concluded if the Consortium (AME) were to accept all conditions amplified by the government in its letter of intent and following the successful conclusion of a detailed technical and financial due diligence and if discussions result in a contract that is satisfactory to the government.”