Mark Sammut’s company, Cursor Ltd, to which John Dalli has given the ‘Eur25 million tender’ for the hospital IT system, is registered to one of these very exclusive hotel rooms
Published:
November 28, 2013 at 2:17pm
These are suites – if you please, not ordinary hotel rooms – at the Hotel Damiani in Bugibba. Cursor Ltd, the two-man IT company owned by John Dalli’s friend and ‘special adviser’ Mark Sammut, is registered in the Companies Registry to one of these rooms.
69 Comments Comment
Leave a Comment
Biggest scandal so far.
You ain’t seen anything yet, my dear Dorian.
Can anyone even imagine what would have happened in Malta if a Nationalist government had done as little as touch the tip of this shitberg of shame and corruption that has been going on since March?
We would have had people protesting in the streets, strikes rallied by the PL and GWU with Muscat and Tony Zarb hopping around and spitting self-righteous indignation at the rampant corruption.
They would have organized mass meetings and general disruption to protest; there would be nothing short of a revolution.
And what is actually happening now?
Why aren’t we being rallied to do this by the P.N.? WAKE UP! The Nationalist Party should react to all these issues in the same strong and vociferous way that it tackled the citizenship issue.
This scandal is a pre-Cursor to many others still to come.
Now I am seriously asking who is after all the prime minister in Malta. With all his baggage John Dalli should be hiding; let alone lead and delegate. What a shambles of a country this not so long ago respected island has become. Shame on you both prime ministers.
I have no idea what the minister’s waiting for, unless of course, he’s between a rock and a hard place on this one.
Watch out for Mercieca’s handling of Labour’s proposal for old people’s community homes scattered around village cores.
The minister can resign from the Labour Party and keep his parliamentary seat in the cabinet, and let Joseph fire him.
His parliamentary seat is in parliament, not in cabinet.
I shall have to watch One news tonight to see if this is true as I am sure that it will be the headline news.
When we think that it can’t get any worse, the following day more shit hits the fan.
Classy.
Dalli’s interest in Health IT is not to be taken as an unambiguous and converging circumstantial piece of evidence as he was still Commissioner in May 2012 when eHealth Week took place in Denmark and the company to which he has given the ‘Eur25 million’ IT job was not among the confirmed exhibitors.
http://worldofhealthit.org/2012/newsletters/eHealthWeek_launch_2011_11_v19.html
Cursor has probably subcontracted the work.
You’d need to keep a watch on what Cursor develops for this Government, or for Dalli, and then sells on to other hospital systems worldwide: who ever can keep track of IP development that is then sold on?
This is where the real money is, and in its maintenance.
Whether or not Mark Sammut has the brains for it, which he undoubtedly has, the way the contract was retracted and re-issued is not clean.
The principle here has been ignored far too many times: Gasol Plc; Henley and Partners; Mark Sammut/ Cursor; Phyllis Muscat; etc.
It always boils down to the principle: neglect of action on the one leaves a weaker position of regulation for the next.
These need to be tackled, confronted and not put into the cemetery of active issues. Keep harping and tackle them at EU level if possible.
What a scam and what an attitude. Corrupt, money-grabbing lot from top to bottom. I hope they all get what they deserve in 5 years’ time.
I beg to differ here with you Francesca..I hope they’ll get what they deserve in LESS than 5 years time.
So many scandals to choose from already. Difficult to say which is the biggest one.
There is another Cursor Ltd giving its address at Swieqi and showing Dr Mark Sammut as contact. Are they one and the same?
[Daphne – Yes. The go-to source for company information, i.e. The MFSA company registry, lists only one company called Cursor Ltd. It cannot possibly list two by the same name.
What you must have done is run a random Google search which brought up various directory entries where the company address is in Swieqi, e.g. http://opencorporates.com/companies/mt/C12884
http://mim.maltaenterprise.com/default.asp?page=companya&show=18486
The Open Corporates listing is drawn from the MFSA site so the company must have been registered in Swieqi at one point, but its official address is now room 5 at Hotel Damiani. ]
Francis at the time of registration a company gives its registered office address. Then when registered the company can still keep its registered office and have also the “trading outlet” address or addresses. So I would not be surprised if the two CURSOR companies are one and the same office. However if they had moved office, the company would be obliged to notify the MFSA of the change of address.
Cursor Ltd’s website lists Hotel Damiani as its office address: http://www.cursor.com.mt/contactus
A quick glance at the MFSA Website shows that he originally registered the company in Swieqi then subsequently altered the memorandum to change the address to the hotel room in Bugibba.
Swieqi was his home address. So this is a company without a place of doing business. He runs it from home.
L-iced bun tad-DeCesares. Sussiddju ghas-swali tac-Cinema. Qalu hawn 35. Zewg-terzi minnhom taghhom.
GĦAJNUNA MILL-GVERN BIEX ISALVA S-SWALI TAĊ-ĊINEMA
Illum is-Segretarju Parlamentari José Herrera flimkien mal-Ministru tal-Finanzi Edward Scicluna varaw skema li biha ser jgħinu l-iswali taċ-ċinema jaqilbu għal sistema diġitali. Din l-iskema tħabret fid-diskors tal-baġit u bis-saħħa tagħha is-swali taċ-ċinema lokali ser ikunu jistgħu jaddottaw t-teknoloġija diġitali fil-wiri tal-films. Għal dan il-għan, l-Gvern, investa nofs miljun ewro fuq sentejn.
F’Malta l-films fiċ-ċinema għadhom qed jintwerew fuq it-tertuqa minkejja li s-swali taċ-ċinema madwar id-dinja jaħdmu fuq sistema diġitali. Is-Segretarju Parlamentari José Herrera qal li t-transizzjoni għal waħda diġitali mhijiex alternattiva imma bżonn għas-swali taċ-ċinema jekk iridu jibqgħu jgħixu. Għalhekk, tenna s-Segertarju Parlamentari responsabli mill-Kultura, b’dan il-pass l-Gvern qed isalva l-industrija taċ-ċinema f’pajjiżna.
L-għajnuna tal-Gvern qed tingħata skont regoli tal-Unjoni Ewropea.
L-ispiża kapitali għal kull screen biex juri films diġitali hija ta’ madwar ħamsin elf ewro. Il-Gvern, qal Herrera, għax jemmen fl-industrija qed jagħti għotjiet differenti biex il-films ikunu jistgħu jintwerew b’mod diġitali.
Min-naħa tiegħu l-benefiċjarja, qal Herrera, qed jintrabat li jagħti lill-iskejjel mal-elf biljett fis-sena b’xejn. Tlett mija u ħamsin biljett l-benefiċjarju qed jintrabat li jagħtihom lill-istituzzjonijiet li jaħdmu ma’ gruppi vulnerabli filwaqt li jżomm prezzijiet stabli fuq id-dħul. Hawn il-Gvern u l-benefiċjarju intrabtu bi prezzijiet fissi għal persuni differenti fosthom studenti, anzjani u gruppi mibgħuta mill-Kunsilli Lokali. Qed jintrabtu ukoll, qal Herreral li jagħtu 50 ewro kull film bħala kontribuzzjoni li tmur fil-Creative Trust Fund ħalli imbagħad tiġi investita lura fl-industrija kreativa.
“Bdil fil-format ta’ kif jintwera l-films ifisser aktar possibilitajiet għas-suq lokali f’dak li huwa roħs fil-prezz tal-produzzjoni tal-film”, qal Herrera. Għalhekk il-Gvern qed jagħzel li jgħin lil din l-industrija, tenna s-Segretarju Parlamentari.
Fil-Konferenza tal-aħbarijiet, il-Ministru tal-Finanzi Prof. Edward Scicluna tkellem dwar l-allokazzjoni tal-Baġit 2014 għall-qasam tal-kultura, wirt, u l-industrja kreattiva, u kif din żdiedet b’ €4 miljuni aktar mill-baġit ta’ qabel.
“Filwaqt li l-prijoritajiet tal-Gvern għall-Baġit 2014 kienu primarjament orjentati lejn il-ħolqien tax-xogħol u t-tkabbir ekonomiku, l-oqsma tal-kultura, l-wirt, l-arti, l-midja, u d-divertiment u l-industrja kreattiva kienu meqjusa bħala istrumenti importanti sabiex il-familji jkollhom kwalità tal-ħajja aħjar. Fil-fatt, l-allokazzjoni fil-Baġit għal dan il-qasam żdiedet b’ €4 miljuni, jew 14 fil-mijja, kkumparata ma’ dik fil-Baġit tas-sena ta’ qabel.”
L-allokazzjoni hi mmirata sabiex il-Gvern jassisti fid-digitisation taċ-Ċinema f’Malta, u b’hekk jinkiser iċ-ċirkolu vizzjuż ta’ swieq li qed isofru minħabba nuqqas ta’ investiment f’teknoloġiji ġodda, li jwasslu wkoll għal tnaqqis fl-attendenza. Bħal ma għamlu pajjiżi oħra, l-intervent tal-Gvern hu approprjat u f’waqtu, u nittamaw li jkun effettiv f’dan ir-rigward.
Min-naħa tagħha, l-industrija tad-divertiment qed tagħraf ir-responsabbiltajiet soċjali tagħha, u se tkun qed tikkontribwixxi permess ta’ aċċess aktar liberu għat-tfal tal-iskola u persuni żvantaġġjati fis-soċjetà.”
F’Malta bħalissa hawn ħames teatri taċ-ċinema b’ħamsa u tletin screen differenti. 16% ta’ dawk l-iscreens biss qalbu fuq sistema diġitali
It was a known fact within the gaming community that in order to be given a gaming license you needed to sign a hosting contract at a specific data centre.
It was so humiliating.
And yes, MFSA/Stock Exchange were also involved with CATS and everyone knew you could not ask any questions about what was going on.
And this message was repeatedly taken up to the very top, and swept under the carpet.
I believe David Thake finally had the balls to bring it out in the open, only to be told that nothing untoward had been found after an “investigation” was held. What bollocks.
Now that everyone’s married and election’s over.
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2013-11-28/news/illegal-structures-being-demolished-at-montekristo-estates-3323920384/
I prefer to wait and see.
It could be a red herring,after the bull in the china shop act by Dalli, it’s time to deviate public attention from the passport sale debacle and the Mater Dei financial audit .
… and is the Protest March by environmental NGOs next Saturday still on?
150 policemen, some heavily armed, the army, who should be carrying weapons also, and works department employees? WOW.
Isn’t this illegal building where the Minister of the Police and the Army goes to watch boxing matches or rather fights? Isn’t this the place where Labour organised most of its electoral campaign activities?
This is overkill and an obvious mise-en-scène.
Government is in real trouble to resort to this kind of expensive gimmick.
Polidano are building on their land and can still go to court. While at it shouldn’t this law enforcement contingent go and demolish the Armier boat houses which are on public land and declared illegal by the Appeals Court?
Did they forget that Montekristo was the main venue of choice for Labour politicians’ family weddings, parties, and election functions?
There is more to this than meets the eye, in particular the way the police terrorized the innocent employees.
And what about the illegal development in Bur il-Kbir Siggiewi PA00787/13? The construction was stopped by the MEPA but soon after the election it continued and now is almost complete. It was refused again in September and there is an appeal pending for 17th February 2014.
What about Gaffarena’s illegal petrol station in Qormi, which was not allowed to open because of breaches in the development permit, but Gaffarena was hoping to have his situation regularized after the change in government.
I agree that this was all a messa in scena to deviate the public’s attention from the developing scandals and to push these off the front pages of the independent media.
er, what about the “boathouses” at Armier? There’s a court judgement on them.
Mirror,mirror on the wall who’s the most scandalous of them all? Very hard selection
Well an integrated Hospital IT System needs to be supported on a 24×7 basis. That might explain it.
Why do I get the impression that this is a well established company? I assume that this company was chosen following government guidelinesfor such contracts. Can we know some of the clients? Are there still people who believe in free consultations? No doubt the Health minister approves.
You will notice that most of the clients on the company’s list have an indirect or direct connection with Dalli. This guy seems to be in Dalli’s group of protégés as he held directorships in the various ministries which fell under Dalli’s responsibility.
The name of the suite will no longer be Napoleon but Kaiser Dalli.
Sur Sammut, ara li tahsiblu ghall-kommixin Iill siehbek John.
I don’t know what the rules for conducting business in Malta are but, is a hotel room accepted as a professional address? Malta is starting to look more like a South American state in the 80s, Thailand or some forsaken ex-Soviet State.
The solution for Malta lies only in foreign intervention.
I presume that it is acceptable for a brothel….
Smells of snuff.
Ara veru li biex tiskongra trid tkun pur. Nesa John Dalli meta hu kien responsabbli mil-bini ta’ Mater Dei, fl-ispiza ta’ l-isptar kien hemm diskrepanza kbira ta’ miljuni. Qatt spjega fejn marru dawk il-miljuni kollha?
So first The Voluntary Consultant asked for the eviction of the Minister from his office in the hospital. “Hands off the Hospital management,” said The Voluntary Consultant to the Minister.
Now they are in the territory of contradicting each other.
The Voluntary Consultant is contradicting his boss.
“When the minister said that I was not commissioned to make the report he meant that I was not paid for the report.”
“He said he had accepted to make a review of Mater Dei Hospital on a voluntary basis. He did not take any executive position in the health ministry or at Mater Dei and did not take any decisions.
He reported his findings in a meeting he and others had with the prime minister and the prime minister requested him to put these in writing. “When one makes a review it is obvious that one reports his findings,” Mr Dalli said.
“The Minister made his position very clear in his introductory remarks in the seminar on the report, that the report does not reflect the position of government.””
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20131128/local/dalli-says-he-was-invited-by-pm-to-draw-up-hospital-report-after-ministers-initiative.496658
Meanwhile, yesterday, the Minister of Health was reported to have told The Times:
“Dr Farrugia said the Dalli report was not actually commissioned by the government. Mr Dalli had indicated his wish to write the report and the government accommodated him.”
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20131127/local/dallis-views-on-mater-dei-hospital-are-his-own-minister.496497
So the new version is that the Dalli Report was requested by the prime minister, after Dalli had presented his findings.
Which means that the MUMN has objections about a report commissioned by the prime minister. It was Joseph Muscat who asked John Dalli to write his report.
The Minister of Health was either not informed, or he was lying or misleading the media when he said that John Dalli’s report was Dalli’s initiative.
It is going too far now. Where is the meritocracy promised? These are definitely worse then the ones before them in nepotism, kick backs and pay time for past services.
Miriam Dalli is given a job as a consultant to the minister of energy and water. What does she know about the subject ..has she any energy and water ” studies “?
Alla jbierek kemm saru consultants all at once.
She pays the water and electricity bills; what do you want more?
“This are suites – if you please, not ordinary hotel rooms – at the Hotel Damiani in Bugibba. Cursor Ltd, the two-man IT company owned by John Dalli’s friend and ‘special adviser’ Mark Sammut, is registered in the Companies Registry to one of these rooms.”
THESE ARE SUITES.
May I suggest government ‘commission’ a statue of John Dalli and place it next to that of Lorry Sant. ‘John Dalli – Philanthropist’ may be a fitting tribute.
I refer to the latest article in the newspapers and I quote:”the IT consultant in the ministry took it upon himself to develop a new system instead of the archaic one in use, and this without getting any extra payment. Even in the face of enormous hurdles he managed to develop the system which will be rolled out next week, well before schedule.”
I.T. is my bread and butter – I am based with a company in the UK and we have our own ERP – Enterprise Resource Planning for the non-techies – system for insurance companies with clients all over the world, and we are talking huge companies here. I have worked on quite a number of projects where we replaced or upgraded older systems.
To give you an idea replacing the software solution for a company the size of Mater Dei (I know it’s not a company) on average takes about two years, with a team of at least 10 people dedicated to the project!
And that is because we know the business requirements (in our case insurance companies) because we specialise in it, and are not developing the software from scratch!
To the best of my knowledge, though I DO stand to be corrected on this, Cursor Ltd developed software for supermarkets, a software that is now obsolete.
Now let me get this straight!
John Dalli would really have us believe that Mark Sammut developed a system from scratch, for a massive operation like Mater Dei, without any knowledge of the hospital ‘industry’ since he has been IT consultant within the Ministry for Health? And for free!
Go and tell it to the fucking marines!
This must have all IT professionals in fits, we certainly are here in Woking!
Even with a team of 100 top notch developers this would be impossible! We are talking of hundreds of tables, indexes, forms, a million lines of code and so much more.
Then we have the UAT (User Application Testing) that takes a minimum, but minimum, of 3 months if done full time.
This would be followed by bug fixes, yes there are always bugs, plus inevitable changes to the design based on feedback from the UAT.
Once this is done there is the data migration, oh yes, migrating the data from the old system to the new.
Then comes further testing.
Then user training, the list goes on!
The cost for this will be enormous And let’s not even get into the phenomenal licencing costs for the servers, databases etc, but Joe Sammut did not accept payment … hah!
2.5 million for an upgrade sounds like a good deal, 25 million for a completely new system for Mater Dei is good too, remember we would be talking about a tried and tested software developed for hospitals with experience that takes decades to build up!
So the possible conclusions are as follows:
1. The system was actually developed for a number of years, i.e. someone is fibbing, big time.
2. The system WAS developed in 9 months in which case it is going to be an unmitigated and dangerous disaster!
3. Someone is really off their rocker!
Hallina trid!
Johann Camilleri, most people should be able to appreciate that a 2-man company can’t possibly take on such a mammoth job.
From my experience (as an ex-small group employer), I can confirm that a simple IT upgrade or routine maintenance involving fairly mainstream software and OSs, and simple networking in a tiny office (therefore very different to a hospital scenario) can occasionally take a couple of weeks to get it all up and running flawlessly. So people can do the maths.
Someone please save Malta from this insanity.
Mark Sammut was developing insurance software from scratch in 1985 which was then sold to the UK.
It was when the system was sold to a number of other local companies that it was unorthodox.
A letter of intent had been issued to a consortium of companies led by ACS, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Xerox.
ACS is global company specialising in large IT outsourcing contracts.The solution consisted of a whole suit of products coming from world IT leaders like HP and Microsoft, and included a fully integrated system.
The contract was not just for all the hardware, software licenses and implementation, but for the complete support and operation over a period of 7 years.
So in fact the price was very reasonable. It was also in line with the previous government’s policy to improve efficiency and reduce costs by outsourcing to private industry.
By not completing the negotiations and award, the government is now in situation where the IT systems at Mater Dei Hospital are beyond end of support life, and that is why they now will have to pay through the nose for maintaining old systems, rather then investing that money in new ones.
This is a total and utter show of gross incompetence, which will cost Malta a lot of money. As to having a PAS system written by Mark Sammut, this is beyond laughable, and if the Minister is actually being led to believe that this is possible, then we have a big problem.
I was watching the Parlament tal-Poplu presented Dr. Emy Bezzina B.A.,M.A.,MAG.JUR.-EU Law,LL.D. this evening. I am a sinful person, so I do subject myself to this sort of self-punishment every now and then, while I indulge in Earl Grey.
It was the usual Labour stuff, but those phone-ins are a good barometer of Labour hate and envy.
Unlike pre-electoral editions, Dr. Bezzina was sporting a shiny red tie, and was red in the face when one contributor suggested that he should wear a blue tie next week.
It was very clear that the Prime Minister and John Dalli have managed to re-ignite the hate and fascist extremism of the Laburisti towards the hospital specialists and professionals as we knew it in the 1970s and 1980s.
Some phone-ins even suggested that the services of the hospital professionals should be categorised as “essential service,” like the services of the police and the armed forces – in other words the right of hospital professionals to industrial action and strike should be taken away.
Dr. Bezzina was very tough with Dr. Godfrey Farrugia, the Health Minister. Apparently the Minister did not accept to reply to questions by Dr. Bezzina.
It is very clear that John Dalli has become a symbol of political divisiveness in Malta. He was divisive before the general elections, and he is even more so now. His actions are now seriously threatening the hospital health services, possibly leading to disruptions in the service.
Dalli is now a serious liability to the Prime Minister and the Health Minister.
One of those three must go.
All three must go. Godfrey Farrugia seems to be a nice man, but he’s unsuited to the job.
What do you mean Dr Bezzina went red in the face?
He is always a glowing scarlet hue.
In the light of the emerging information and the confusion as to Dalli’s terms of reference, the Auditor-General cannot sit on the sidelines and do nothing about this.
It’s time to show his mettle and investigate Dalli’s TORs, his authority to cancel tenders and to award contracts and direct orders.
If Dalli’s powers are, in terms of what Minister Farrugia stated, simply to draw up a non-binding report, then Dalli is acting way beyond his mandate.
The possible costs and implications are high in terms of damages for breach of contract and in consequence of spending millions on IT garbage, while disserving the hospital staff and patients.
Will the independent Attorney-General’s office show the same zeal as it did with the Enemalta investigations? We’ll have to wait and see I suppose. Meanwhile I wonder what the real local IT companies think about this.
In the media references to John Dalli’s statement today he is quoted as saying that the initiative to entrust him with the drawing up of a report on Mater Dei came from the minister of health.
In the unlikely eventuality that he is not lying, I strongly advise Godfrey Farrugia to seek urgent admission to the psychiatric emergency ward at Mater Dei tonight just in case.
These reports also underline Dalli’s insistence that he got no remuneration for his oeuvre.
How is it possible that this guy does not realise that this is exactly what makes his involvement with Mater Dei even more suspect and fishy.
http://www.prosperity.com/#!/country/MLT , will please have a look at this.
Is this an iced bun in the making?
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20131129/local/culture-council-ceo-told-to-leave.496743
Acts speak louder than words. The conduct of John Dalli over the years and Manwel Mallia recently, in different ways, shows why they are more at home with Labour rather than with the Nationalist Party.
Their conduct is a throwback to the predominant culture of Labour politicians when they were in power in the 70s and most of the 80s.
[Daphne – That is exactly what I said about Jeffrey Pullicino and Franco Debono. They only supported the Nationalist Party because they were raised that way. But really, they identified with Labour and just put Malta through torture while they went through the painful process of hiving themselves off from the PN and going where they really wanted to be.]
My feeling is that it will not be the IT only, but also medicine contracts too in the future.
The stories emerging daily about this government’s doings make Anton Grasso’s ‘Stejjer Tal-Wahx’ look like a Ladybird book for two year olds.
It is beyond belief.
Mind you, many of us knew it would come to this. But so much happened so soon and there seems no end to it. The dogs were let out and the long wait made their power and money-grabbing frenzy beyond control.
So I switch my attention to the switchers, whom I prefer to call scum-bags with little or no sense, and as Russell Crowe shouted in the arena, I will shout at them. Sorry Daphne I have to shout.
ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?
ARE YOU NOT, ENTERTAINED?
Apparently Bezzina forgot his ” crieki, go crieki, go crieki”.
He tripped over some ‘crieki, go crieki, go crieki’.
DalliBA (Philantropist) has invariably surfaced whenever millions are involved. Daphne is definitely spot on in describing this as an obsessive compulsion.
After writing a smokesreen report and unleashing it on a mostly naïve media for ‘discussion’ or ‘djalogu’ as he called it, he simultaneously set to work on his real target, the €25 million IT contract – while all attention was on the report.
Other spoils will follow and the question we should be asking is, who will benefit from the kickbacks besides the Philantropist?
Can someone find out what connection Mark Sammut had with ADT back in 2005, when the big scandal had erupted with the corrupt driving examiners?
Id-dejn mhux ta’ kullhadd l-istess.
Min ghandu d-dejn tal-flus u min ghandu d-dejn ghal xi obligazzjoni jew xi pjacir.
Jien imbellah kif dan John Dalli kien se jigi mressaq il-Qorti u f’daqqa wahda kif inbidel il-Kummissarju tal-Pulizija ma’ gara xejn, anzi sar bniedem prominenti tal-Gvern ta’ Joseph Muscat.
Mark Sammut has been an appendage to the John Dalli outfit for a number of years now.
I remember meeting him many years ago when Dalli was Finance Minister and Mark Sammut had been appointed a director on the Malta Stock Exchange board. Did i hear someone say “mhux x’taf imma lil min taf”?
This really blew me away. Someone should be checking what technologies are being used just as a start.
I would expect that MITA has its eco system for such a major project. In other words this means like what sort of planes one buys for an airline depends on the availability of spares and the number of planes one has from the same supplier.
Medium to long term servicing could prove to be a financial disaster, i.e. 2.5 million would be the least one has to worry about at this point as well as the possibility that the supplier of that technology goes bankrupt or decides to go off on a tanget and stops being compatible with other systems.
And pray while the superman is cosing is this system being stress tested for the huge usage which I’m sure it will experience?
Who is doing that work then?
Not to mention who is testing what he’s building before staff see it? Is any technical testing going to be done before release?
And all this will be released next week according to Dalli.
The system is written on a database called Dataflex which is opensource and full of bugs and backdoor entry points. It is easily hackable.
That’s what we are getting. GOD HELP US.
Sammut is desperately trying to make the system go live today. He is trying to prove it works. It won’t. Staff at Mater Dei Hospital are already canning it as unworkable.
This is about Dalli getting his own back after his INSO and AME-fronted bid failed in 2004 due to corrupt practices. No one can pin him to it, of course, but I’m sure if a certain Gilbert talks…
And why is Claudio Grech so silent on the whole issue? Perhaps the PN should ask pertinent questions of its shadow health minister.
Dataflex is not open source and there is nothing wrong with open source for that matter, but Dataflex is not something for very large scale database applications.
It’s prone to data corruption, more desktop application-like oriented. It’s meant for medium to small operations so they can build their applications quickly inhouse.
As far as I know, the Dataflex database has severe limitations albeit you can connect it via ODBC to other databases but that defeats the purpose because ODBC is slower than a direct connection like most other enterprise tools available.
If it is true that Sammut is using Dataflex then that really takes the biscuit because: a. there are few who use it so limits the competion field, b. it could not be around tomorrow as it’s not one of the big heavily capitalised software companies that would be considered more reliable, especially for something critical like a hospital, even if they have been around for quite a long time, c. it does not interface well with other mainstream enterprise products.
In other words, this is plain nuts.
Is Manuel Mallia involved in this one, as a euro 25 million IT project has become a euro 2.5 million project now? A zero seems to have disappeared.