George Micallef, the Eco-Schemer

Published: March 26, 2008 at 10:45am

Just as with former police inspector Anglu Farrugia and the infamous case of it-tifel ta’ Lorry Sant u l-korruzzjoni fil-Freeport, Miss Miriam Dalli, Charlon Gouder and Super One News have a problem handling the difficult case of George Micallef and his resignation into more and more private consultancy work. They’d really like to adopt a down ‘n’ dirty x’gharukaza tack of the kind that they know how to do so well, but there’s just one little problem.

George Micallef is a Labour sympathiser. You know, one of those Labour sympathisers that the vicious Nationalist government which refuses to work with anyone but Nationalists left on in his post and appointed him chairman of this and chairman of that. Karmenu Vella, in between renting out flats to the Freeport and dispatching Mrs Mangion to cash the cheques so that they wouldn’t have to be declared for income tax, appointed Micallef as his consultant at the Ministry of Tourism when Sant was busy having that brief flirtation with government.

Aha, and guess what? Micallef also spearheaded the Bugibba project which will go down in Maltese political history as Sant’s monument to public works: a promenade plagued with more cost and time over-runs than an entire airport.

These parts of his CV are being ignored by Miss Miriam Dalli and Charlon Gouder. Of course.

And if you click on this link, you’ll find something quite interesting. The Malta Tourism Authority set up an Eco-Certification Scheme and appointed a board called the Green Commission to oversee its administration. Guess who was chairman of the board? That’s right: George Micallef, the eco-schemer.




11 Comments Comment

  1. Tony Pace says:

    Daphne,
    As always you hit the proverbial nail.
    George Micallef is now abandoning ship, but sorry mate, its too effin late, and say good-bye to your consultancy potential…..under any government.
    There is a 5 letter word which is the secret for ANY job, and it’s that excellent quality called TRUST. An employer needs to:
    Trust the man with information
    TRUST the man to use it properly.
    TRUST the man to make the right decisions.
    TRUST the man not to ABUSE it.
    Once he/she earns that TRUST, it becomes an essential feature of his/her integrity, and then and only then can he/she be employable.
    And that goes for politicians as well, although sadly some of them have let us down.

  2. Oli says:

    Dear Matt,

    You are referring to Muscat as Labour’s New Leader? Because I heard that the election is still to come? Dr. Alfred Sant was MLP President 20 years ago as his other main players, Joe Mizzi, Joe Debono Grech, Charles Mangion In-Nutar, Karmenu Vella, George Vella, Marie Louise Colerio Preca and others. Surely we have to new leads, very bright people in likes of pepsodent smile (as written on it torca by Dr. Toni Abela) Jason Micallef, The Cuschieri brothers, and so on. I was sure that with this new labour people would vote NO labour !!. As regards corruption may I remind you that PN is the only party in Malta that prints its audit accounts as requested by law; the MLP has only one think transparent, his accounts which never made way to the MFSA (I hope they pay fines like anyone else) isn’t that corruption? You are probably not aware that Labour constructed there new glass house under Sant’s leadership! Getting the Laburisti in Dubai was the Labour good feeling to us others? And what about that villa built illegally by the Gozo labour MP. corruption stands, when to get a TV set you had to pay some canvazzer bazzuzlu…

    To say Labour under Sant wasn’t that bad I totally disagree !, in a mere 20 months he destroyed Malta’s revenue system (CET /VAT) Tbazwira, he frozen our future in Europe Tbazwira ohra he introduced 33 new taxes targeting people mostly in need, Water and Electricity bills exploded in a drastic way and the bad certificate of tbaswir was given to Sant firstly by his own colleagues who left him and then the rest of us Maltese by not re-electing his party. I remember him calling Guido de Marco Mignun u gidieb when he (GDM) used to say that Malta will get 100 million if it was full member of the EU, to be hones GDM wasn’t all that right cause Malta got 850 Million thanks to his vision for which I thank him.

    The PN in government wasn’t afraid to liberalize telecommunication and didn’t keep PBS with its emblem full day, opened MEPA (which I agree needs to be restructured but it surely decreased fouls) Ombudsman and so much more

    I think Labour have a lot to clean and to learn before we can trust them again in government and for my friends curiosity I am still 34 years.

  3. Abel Abela says:

    Info on DJRL Dance Ltd & Spin Valley website

    C 37882 DJRL Dance Ltd 26/1/2006

    https://www.nic.org.mt/dotmt/

    Domain name: spinvalley.com.mt
    Registered: 29 Jan 2008

    [Moderator – The rest of this post contained information about the people who registered the domain name spinvalley.com.mt. The information is publicly available here.]

  4. Guzeppi Grech says:

    @Daphne

    Just a question, which in fact, might (or not) help you prove a point:

    Why are you so sure Mr George Micallef is a Labour sypathiser. My impression was that he was apolitical and worked with all administrations equally.

    Again, just for clarity, since I have no reason to defend him or demonise him, can I just point out that he spent 20 months working as consultant under Karmenu Vella, but many years under the PN Administration, including as personal consultant to Francis Zammit Dimech (to be fair I don’t know what of all this is true, just what I read somewhere)

    So to wrap up: I thought he was apolitical, you claim he is a Labour sympathiser.

    Any info would be appreciated as I am rather curious about this. Thanks :)

    [Moderator – Guzeppi, I’m sorry that your comments take so long to appear. I have no idea why they keep turning up in spam, but I’m trying to find out how to fix it so that they don’t.]

  5. Daphne Caruana Galizia says:

    @Guzeppi Grech – nobody is apolitical. Civil servants have to act as though they are apolitical, but George Micallef was not a civil servant.

  6. Amanda Mallia says:

    Guzeppi Grech – Just a general comment: The fact that people “claim to be apolitical” does not necessarily mean that they are. As Sant himself once said “the proof of the pudding …”.

  7. Guzeppi Grech says:

    @ Daphne and @ Amanda Mallia

    OK….fair enough , so what’s the pudding’s taste like? (to paraphrase Amanda Mallia).

    This is a genuine question, not trying to score any political points. Why is he being considered as a Labour sympathiser?

    Anything (that is not related to the JPO evolving story) would be nice to know.

    Thanks for your patience :)

  8. Meerkat :) says:

    Hi All,

    I found the nerve-centre of The Poodle/Chicken campaign for Lider;

    A logo…

    A campaign song called ‘A Fridge Full of Dreams’ (check it out in links below).

    And the ‘Ghandi Holma’ thingy is the 15 point plan, folks.

    http://www.purevolume.com/chickenpoodlesoup

    http://www.myspace.com/chickenpoodlesoup

  9. Daphne Caruana Galizia says:

    @Meerkat – hilarious. Do you want a job as researcher on this blog?

  10. Meerkat :) says:

    @ Daphne

    With pleasure but I have to check if Brian wants me first …. LOL

  11. Amanda Mallia says:

    Meerkat – Ha, ha! This morning I ran a “chicken poodle” search on YouTube, and came up with a couple of videos of some band called “Chicken Poodle Soup” (which I didn’t even know existed, but anyway!). You beat me to it, posting them here!

    Daph – There’s also a dodgey home video on YouTube showing a poodle dancing the funky chicken dance …

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