UPDATED/Projects Malta’s website account has been suspended

This post is updated at the end with comments from Projects Malta’s PRO.

When was the last time you took a look at the web portal for Konrad Mizzi’s Projects Malta? This is where that outfit uploads details of tenders, calls for proposals and expressions of interest, and other such potential Panama delights.

It also includes company details – because Projects Malta is a limited liability company set up by the government of Malta – contact information, ‘About Us’, and all the usual stuff.

Projects Malta also has a full-time public relations officer, the former Labour Party TV/Media Today employee Julia Farrugia. And yet this has happened. Perhaps Mrs Farrugia was too busy at her extra-curricular consultancy work for the Gozo Minister, for which she is paid another €900 a month over and above her salary from Konrad Mizzi, and became distracted.

I rang Ivan Falzon, who is the registered admin for the site, and the very same who was appointed CEO of the state general hospital, and he told me that he had set up the website around three years ago “when I used to work for Minister Konrad Mizzi”. He said that he no longer has anything to do with it.

“I passed on everything to the PRO when I left,” he said. “I can’t remember her name.” “Julia Farrugia,” I said. “Yes, that’s the one. I barely know her.”

I don’t have Mrs Farrugia’s mobile number, so I shall have to wait until the Projects Malta office opens because I ring her to see what the problem is – that is, assuming she actually is in the office and not making her own hours like so many of them seem to do. But hang on, there’s another problem: I need to get the office number off the website, and it’s been suspended.

This is just wonderful, isn’t it. It’s bad enough that all the major government tenders and calls for expressions of interest are under a dark cloud of suspicion for corruption, pre-arranged deals and trading in influence. Then potential bidders, journalists and others visit the Projects Malta site to check out the latest details and get ACCOUNT SUSPENDED.

And somehow, I doubt they’ve even noticed let alone are working overtime to get the matter sorted, because it’s been suspended for 24 hours at least – since I first checked – and may well have been suspended for any amount of time before that.

UPDATE: I have just obtained Mrs Farrugia’s number and rang her, which is just as well as personal circumstances are keeping her away from the office today. She explained that she noticed last Sunday that the website had been suspended, and had last used it on Friday.

“I flagged it up immediately internally and was told by the financial officer that he had received the payment request email (for hosting fees) and had settled it,” she said.

“He then got back to me to say that the payment was actually for the search engine and not the website hosting fees. But then I remembered that last year I had used my own personal Visa card to pay for two years’ hosting fees, so I can’t understand why the account has been suspended. I have asked my colleagues at the office to look for the statement on my desk and will send it to you.”