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No privacy breach by MITA chairman, says commissioner
Data Protection Commissioner says MITA chairman Claudio Grech has no access to sensitive personal data held by national IT agency.
2 December 2011, 12:00am
Matthew Vella
Matthew Vella
2 min read
MITA chairman Claudio Grech (left) analyses electoral data with PN secretary-general Paul Borg Olivier during last May's divorce referendum. (Photo: Ray Attard).
The Data Protection Commissioner has found no breach of privacy in allegations brought forward by Labour MP Michael Farrugia against Claudio Grech, the chairman of the Malta IT Agency (MITA).
Commissioner Joseph Ebejer was asked by Grech to investigate claims by Farrugia that as MITA chairman he had access to sensitive data pertaining to every citizen, and this conflicted with his political involvement inside the Nationalist Party.
Farrugia claimed Grech's 'dual role' was "a danger to individuals' liberty when it comes to data protection."
But Commissioner Ebejer said in his conclusions to the investigation that Farrugia had supplied no further evidence to substantiate his claims. He also said that Grech, as chairman, had no access to personal information processed in MITA's databases.
Farrugia told Ebejer that Claudio Grech, a former head of secretariat to Investments Minister Austin Gatt, had negotiated the land deal with Dubai's Tecom Investments for the construction of Smart City Malta. He was later employed as chief executive of SCM, and also politically appointed as MITA chairman.
Farrugia said Grech was intimate with the Nationalist Party's IT systems and had declared he had coordinate all the party's electoral data with the PN's secretary-general.
Farrugia also referred to Grech's participation in last May's referendum campaign against divorce, and stated that he should not be involved in politics as chairman of a public authority.
In his conclusions, Ebejer said he had conducted inspections at MITA to see what access employees and the chairman had to the agency's databases, which include government ministries' and public companies' databases as well.
The Commissioner said that MITA's sole role when it comes to these databases is to host them, and any change to this data can only happen when approved by the data owner. "If a MITA official needs access to the database, this must be approved by a direct superior and MITA manager, and this request is also recorded in the MARVAL database. Even the chairman needs approval from the MITA manager."
Ebejer concluded that Grech had no access to personal information according to an inspection to the MARVAL database.
Matthew Vella, a freelance journalist at MaltaToday, was formerly executive editor at Malt...
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One thing is definitively certain in Malta under this government. There is no impartiality in any of the supposedly autonomous boards, entities and authorities which are all there to serve as a smokescreen for the government, aka GONZIPN. The obsessed and die hards can believe whatever they are told, but the rest of us can only see what there's to see.
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Din tad-data protection hija farsa.
Isma bil-fors u emmen jekk trid.
Luke Camilleri •
jIDHER MINN MIN HU MHALLAS IL-KUMMISSARJU TAD-DATA!
Ahjar jghidilna xi haga fuq ta' David Agius u l-informazzjoni li gab mid-Dipartiment tas-servizzi Socjali u prezenta fil qorti fuq Joe Said, talba li saritlu f'Lulju tas-sena l'ohra!
Joqghod attent ghax jitlef il-kredibilita wkoll b'din ir-rata!
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Data protection is a joke in Malta. Was not Paul Borg Olivier caught requesting confidential information - what did the Commissioner do on that occasion? And its shameful that Claudio Grech continues to pursue his conflicts of interest and getting away with it - i know that he needs to suck up to his political masters - so he can occupy a position he is not qualified to hold, but let's not pretend its not shameful!
What we have is a corrupt commissioner overlooking the wrong doing of equally corrupt people.
What we have is MALTA!
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Unbelievable. As Raymond Gatt said, the chairman certainly could get anything he wanted, and possibly without trace regardless of any policy. The mere appearance of impropriety should be sufficient to preclude his dual role.
Ian George Walker •
The photo chosen to illustrate this article says it all really - I'm thinking of sending a framwed copy to the Data Protection Commissioner.
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Grech might not have access to personal information and access to sensitive data - what is the level of security detail entrusted to the chairman within this authority we have not been told and may never be told on grounds of confidentiality. But for Christ's sake, he is the chairman, the number one employee and surely has the authority to order his subordinates to obtain any information that he deems appropriate for his different requirements.
Ian George Walker •
Michael Farrugia does not HAVE to produce any evidence, because there are enough facts in the public domain to sustain his position.
1) Cludio Grech is a PN stalwarts and strategist
2) He is the head of the Government entity charged with keeping all our personal data.
Those two positions are NOT COMPATIBLE and constitute a clear conflict of interest. They are only acceptable in a Banana Republic like Malta has become.
PS: The denizens of The blog have just been told that they have to hate Matthew Vella. So Antoine Vella now duly hates him, like the obedient little familiar that he is.
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Who would have expected an otherwise result, blue-eyed boy investigating another blue-eyed boy.
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imma xorta jibqa il fatt li hu tal qalba tal PN
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The Commissioner did not say that Michael Farrugia (PL) "had supplied NO FURTHER EVIDENCE to substantiate his claims". What he said was that Farrugia had not presented any evidence AT ALL. "L-Onor Farrugia ma għadda l-ebda evidenza li setgħet, b’xi mod jew ieħor tissostanzja l-alegazzjonijiet" (from the Commissioner's report). The word "further" implies that Farrugia had provided some evidence but, in fact, he hadn't and the word is an invention by our ineffable Matthew Vella.
