Matthew Vella It costs just under €1 per capita of the Maltese population to operate the Security Service’s interception of telecommunications.
The Malta Communications Authority has informed all telecommunications and internet service providers that they will have to front the total sum of €391,000 for 2010 to fund the operation of the system, which is then run by the Security Service.
The costs of legal interception, which allows the Security Service to gain access to private calls and exchange of information over the internet, refer to the lease, use and maintenance of the technology, which has to be financed by all undertakings related to telecommunications.
The MCA said that it was possible that in 2010, additional payments will have to be made for additional equipment to intercept “new services and technologies.”
The legal interception system has in the past attracted controversy, in part due to the system devised by the MCA to fund it, and the procurement process for the interception technology had been deemed “unfair” by rival bidders.
The MCA projects the costs for the operation of the system a year in advance, and invoices telecommunication companies and ISPs, while binding itself to refund any unused monies. Vodafone Malta had claimed that EU law prohibited the MCA from imposing payments that were over and above the actual expenditure for its operation.
Additionally, the MCA’s procurement process for the interception system was challenged by Italian firm RCS, which claimed it had offered a cheaper system than Verint, the Israeli firm chosen to provide the interception technology to the Security Services.
The MCA had led the tender, but claimed it did not fall under normal procurement rules because the tender had a special dispensation, since it concerned equipment for the Security Service.
RCS claimed the bidders were never informed of a “dispensation” exempting the contract from procurement laws, which meant they could not appeal the MCA’s decision to award the €2 million contract to Verint.
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