Couple guilty of filing false declaration

A couple were this morning handed a two-year suspended sentence after a Court of Appeal overturned a not-guilty judgement which had previously acquitted them of charges of giving false information in a tender for an educational college which was to be accessible to disabled persons.
 
In 2008, entreprenuer Rosanne Galea, 48 and husband John David Galea, 47, participated in a call for tenders issued by the Department of Contracts through their company Future Focus Ltd. The call was for the provision of premises to be used as a training college for technology. The selection criteria specified that the premises should house at least 60 students and have access for disabled people as the teaching facility at MCAST could not house more students. The premises outlined by the couple were situated at 8, Triq il-Magazin, Floriana.

The tender closed on 11 September 2008 and police officers went to check the various sites. However it resulted that contrary to what the couple had declared in the tender document, their site was an old building and with around 20 steps between each floor. Access from the road into the building was via a 19cm-high step. Police officers Norbert Said and Anthony Cassar filed a report claiming that the application for the tender filed by the couple was a false declaration as the premises were not equipped with mobile stairs, lifts or wheelchair access. Furthermore, wheelchair-bound people could not even have access to the bathroom facilities inside the building.

The couple argued that restructuring works were underway, however no disabled access was available at the time the couple handed in their offer. Rosanne Galea admitted that the premises presented difficulties to people who are wheelchair-bound, but people with other disabilities could access the site easily. "We did not feel obliged to specify this, given that we never had wheelchair-bound clients in the past eight years. Furthermore the tender did not specify any standards of accessibility for persons with disabilities," the accused said. This was also confirmed by her husband John, however this was rebutted by Alfred Bezzina, Director of the Commission of Disabled People who claimed that according to the Commission's standards the place was not accessible.

Mr Justice Michael Mallia said that the call for tenders explicitly stated that the premises had to be accessible for wheelchairs. "The accused were aware of the selection criteria yet knowingly gave a false declaration about accessibility to the building. The installation of a stair climber after the evaluation process does not change the fact that the couple gained from their false declaration, as their premises never had the criteria to participate in the tendering process".

The court revoked the previous acquittal and handed the Galeas an 18-month jail term suspended for two years.