Unqualified personnel deciding on multi-million-euro cancer treatment tenders at health ministry

Malta’s Health Ministry is using unqualified staff to evaluate multi-million-euro tenders for cancer medicines and other specialised drugs.

An investigation by The Shift found that non-technical employees at the Central Procurement and Supplies Unit (CPSU) have been appointed to tender evaluation committees overseeing the procurement of high-value pharmaceuticals.

These include oncology treatments costing thousands of euro per vial.

In several cases, the committees were dominated by staff with no medical or scientific background, effectively giving them the deciding votes.

Health Ministry sources told The Shift that the practice has been ongoing for months. Despite repeated concerns raised internally, they say no corrective action has been taken by Health Minister Jo Etienne Abela.

“This is like appointing a plumber to fix a car,” one senior health official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Several employees who were asked to sit on the committees reportedly expressed discomfort at being required to judge whether complex medicines met technical specifications they could not meaningfully assess.

The ministry’s permanent secretary, Joseph Chetcuti, defended the system, saying the CPSU handles a wide array of procurement processes, ranging from medicinal products to routine items such as stationery and cleaning materials. He noted that evaluators are selected from a pool of public service officials and receive training from the Department of Contracts in using the government’s e-procurement platform.

Asked about his wife’s presence on such tender evaluation lists, Chetcuti insisted that she was not willing to sit on these committees and was granted an exemption due to her perceived conflict of interest.

Health Ministry sources rejected Chetcuti’s explanation and insisted that the Permanent Secretary’s remarks understated the complexity of pharmaceutical tenders and demonstrated his lack of understanding of the technical requirements involved and of what is going on in his own ministry.

Internal CPSU documents reviewed by The Shift list numerous high-value medicinal tenders issued this year in which evaluators included handymen and receptionists.

In one example, a tender issued last summer (CT2141/2025) for 2,625 vials of the cancer therapy Durvalumab – valued at €6.6 million, or roughly €2,514 per vial (listed in the tender) – was assessed by a committee consisting of one member who possessed pharmaceutical expertise.

The Shift is informed of tens of tenders for high-value medicinal products, evaluated by unqualified personnel.

Health Ministry sources warned that the lack of qualified evaluators could heighten the risk of procurement errors or abuses, potentially distorting competition among pharmaceutical importers in a market worth hundreds of millions of euro annually.

The government spends substantial public funds each year on medicines and health products, making the integrity of tender processes a critical issue for both public finances and patient care.

Harsh competition exists among a few pharmaceutical companies and agents vying for multi-million-euro government tenders.