Police investigating suspected €2 million misappropriation

The Police are investigating an alleged case of misappropriation of funds that amounts to €2 million. MARSEC-XL is being suspected of having misappropriated public funds that should have been directed towards the financing of a marine software development project, carried out in partnership with the government.

Speaking on TVM's Realtà, Economy Minister Chris Cardona confirmed the Police were investigating the matter, flagged by the Internal Audit and Investigations Department. According to Cardona, the funds were passed on to "two persons" who failed to make proper use of the funds.

The file was passed on to the Police by the ministry for economy.

Last year, MaltaToday revealed that an internal government audit being carried out by the Ministry for Economy has halted the marine software development project.

The Marine Software Engineering Cluster of Excellence (MARSEC-XL), is a public-private partnership aimed at developing a specialised maritime ICT workforce and attracting foreign investment and international research funding.

The initiative had its own line item of €300,000 in the budget since 2010. It was also voted for in Budget 2013, but no funds had been issued due to the ongoing audit.