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MT 7 August 2016

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maltatoday, SUNDAY, 7 AUGUST 2016 26 Letters INDUSTRY experts Gartner have revised their rating of British software firm iSoft downward to "caution" from "promising", their latest rating since the troubled com- pany revised its accounting policy in June. Gartner are the experts chosen by the Maltese government to consult with the committees evaluating a crucial tender for the provision of an integrated health infor- mation system at the Mater Dei hospital. According to their latest rating, iSoft's re- duced profitability could impair its ability to accelerate work on an IT project for the UK's national health service. The finance ministry has already stated the committees "prefer to rely on the of- ficial and professional advice of (Gartner) than on that dispensed by any other sourc- es," referring to reports in the British press over the uncertain future of iSoft. Mater Dei's IT system has to be in place by December 2006 if Prime Minister Law- rence Gonzi wants to cut the inaugura- tion ribbon on 1 July, 2007, his fifty-fourth birthday. The decision on the crucial contract is now expected to be taken shortly after ear- lier this week, iSoft and AME consortium presented their final offers. The consorti- um – Austrian firm AME, Intercomp and Italian firm Inso SpA, the suppliers of Ma- ter Dei's medical equipment – presented a €29,133,600 bid. iSoft presented a higher offer at €29,630,153. But in its most recent rating update note issued on 28 July, experts Gartner con- firmed that "recent events have led us to adjust our rating of iSoft downward from Promising to Caution" after iSoft issued a second profit warning back in April. The company is also facing an investigation into possible accounting irregularities, and has delayed its full-year results indefinite- ly. It is also in negotiations with banks to amend its banking covenants. In June 2006, iSoft announced a change in accounting policy which reversed £165 million of revenue it had booked upfront in the past three years. As a result, CEO Tim Whiston resigned in June 2006, with chairman John Weston taking over. According to Gartner, new chief opera- tions officer Bill Henry has "no experience with complex clinical information sys- tems". iSoft's share value dropped by 90 per cent this year after issuing a warning that rev- enues and profits from the UK's National Health Service IT project (NPfIT) would be lower than expected, due to delayed de- livery of iSoft applications. Irrespectively, iSoft spokesperson John White claimed last week that the compa- ny was a "strong" company, in a letter to MaltaToday. London's Financial Times re- ported iSoft's diatribe earlier this week, but iSoft denied it had complained about the coverage through the British High Com- mission. iSoft is providing three of the five re- gional contracts for the NPfIT. According to Gartner, iSoft's Lorenzo software will require substantial investment and that iSoft "must ensure it will have the resourc- es to make this investment. iSoft appears to have seriously underestimated the time and effort necessary to develop the Lor- enzo application suite." Although Gartner notes that such delays are unsurprising given the large scale of the project, it noted that iSoft's reduced prof- itability and capitalisation "could impair its ability to accelerate this work, because delays in delivery Lorenzo applications will require iSoft to maintain its existing appli- cations longer than anticipated." iSoft provides software for the transmis- sion of information from patients to doc- tors. Software licences are usually spread out over several years. While some com- panies pay a lump sum upfront, others pay in staggered amounts over the life of the agreement. Under CEO Tim Whiston however, iSoft often booked the full value of contracts and services as revenue up- front, regardless of how customers paid. This meant that in many cases it booked revenue which the firm would not see for several years. Government experts urge 'caution' over iSoft Send your letters to: The Editor, MaltaToday, MediaToday Ltd. Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 | Fax: (356) 21 385075 E-mail: newsroom@mediatoday.com.mt. Letters to the Editor should be concise. No pen names are accepted. 6 August 2006 The albatross around Leo Brincat's neck SOME three weeks ago, Astrid Vella of Flimkien ghal Ambjent Ah- jar, during a protest rally against the proposed towers that are to shoot up some 40-plus storeys into the Sliema sky, made a very serious allegation against the Prime Min- ister. An allegation that seems to have been taken lightly, if not totally ignored, by the media and more so by the PM himself. She said that he told her, in front of witnesses, that he doesn't give a fig… it's no big deal for him when NGOs raise their hackles at high-rise, for the people will in time come round to the idea and get used to them. The press has published minutes of a private meeting of the Planning Authority showing that the government "instructed the PA to designate Mriehel as a high- rise area after the close of public consultation". For those not up to speed with the Mriehel towers' controversy, this was a case of the government pulling a fast one on an unsuspecting public (uriena d-debba u qabbżilna l-ħmara). The plans the public saw during the "consultation" process did not include those four towers, rising to around 20 storeys. The public was played for a dummy, as is the wont of this government. Since more than two weeks have gone by since the weekly broke the story and no denial from either the PM or the PA has been forthcoming, one is inclined to go along with what the paper said. If anything, this will give crushing weight to Astrid Vella's allegation as to what the PM said to her with respect to his not giving a fig and how the average schmuck in the street will come round to accepting high-rises. Enter former Environment Minister Leo Brincat into the fray. He's due to appear before a European parliamentary committee and make his case as to why he is Malta's ideal candidate for the European Court of Auditors, despite the albatross he hung round his neck when he voted against the confidence motion filed against minister Konrad Mizzi. That aside, for a moment, he has a lot to answer for during his tenure as Environment Minister. As Malta's frontline defender of what remains of her environment, his support of the Zonqor project was nothing short of betrayal of his mission. The weekend following the NGOs' protest on the site of the proposed project, in tandem with the disgraced former parliamentary secretary for planning, he sang the project's praises even when the initial plans were for 91,000 square metres of virgin land being up for grabs. Yes, that was nothing short of a downright betrayal of his mission. As if that were not enough, we now have this scam about the Mriehel towers, a scam perpetrated during his tenure. Another act of betrayal. So one question which should be put to Leo Brincat at his hearing for his candidature for the ECA, is this: "The facts show that you betrayed your mission as your country's front-line defender of the environment. What guarantees can you give this committee that should you accede to the ECA, there won't be another betrayal?" Things don't look good at all for Leo. Along with the albatross around his neck, the man is in for getting his wings clipped. Joe Genovese Birkirkara Recusal of magistrate in Gozo case OLAF immunity case still ongoing in court Dr Jason Azzopardi has placed Ms Justice Lorraine Schembri Orland in a big dilemma. Dr Azzopardi, on behalf of his cli- ent, Samuel Azzopardi, formerly and now reinstated Mayor of Victoria, has instituted a case at the Constitutional Court, asking the court to accept his client's plea, that Magistrate Joanna Vella Cuschieri should not hear and decide the libel case which Samuel Azzopardi had insti- tuted against minister Anton Refalo, due to the magistrate having been a PL candidate in a general election. The judge, who has been as- signed this constitutional case is Lorraine Schembri Orland, who had been a candidate on the PN's list in the 1992 general election. If this judge were to ac- cept Dr Jason Azzopardi's plea, that Magistrate Joanna Vella Cuschieri should not hear the libel case instituted by the PN Mayor of Victoria, the question arises: why did she accept to hear and decide a much more "political" case, namely, that of the two extra parliamentary seats which Schembri Orland has already heard and decided in favour of the PN? Peter Cole Sussex, UK This is a right of reply to the report carried in MaltaToday on Sunday (31 July), on the court decision on Giovanni Kessler, OLAF director gen- eral. The 20 July decision of the President of the Court that you reported on refers only to a request made by the OLAF Director-General for interim measures to be applied by the Court, as a matter of urgency, until the Court reaches a final verdict on the substance of the case he has filed. The Director-General had requested that through such interim measures, the Court temporarily and urgently suspends the application of the Commission decision lifting his immunity for an investigative act carried out in the course of his professional duties. On 20 July, the Court rejected only this application for interim measures, not the entire case. The Court found that there was no urgency at stake at this moment in time. It did not rule on the validity of the arguments in law put forward by the Director-General. The case on substance is therefore on-going and will proceed as per the Court's usual rules and timelines. Alina Burea OLAF

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