This is the MCST CEO who Pullicino Orlando replaced…with himself

When Nicholas Sammut, chief executive officer of the Malta Council for Science and Technology, resigned shortly after the Labour Party was elected to government in 2013 and did not seek renewal of his contract, Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando – who was chairman of that council – made it clear that the board was not to seek a replacement because he would be taking the job title (and salary and allowances) himself while also retaining his current role of chairman.

So he made himself executive chairman with the full approval of the prime minister, who is directly responsible for the Malta Council for Science and Technology.

What the board discovered next is that Pullicino Orlando, in his new position which conflated the two roles of chairman and CEO, had taken the salary and allowances of the CEO but retained his working hours and commitment as chairman – in other words, he carried on with the same commitment he had as chairman, popping into the office randomly once a week, while being paid as a full-time, committed CEO.

That would be bad enough. What makes this corruption worse is that Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando is not a scientist but a dentist, and his only academic qualification is a bachelor’s degree in dentistry.

He has no qualification beyond bachelor level and that is an unrelated subject – not properly science and not even management.

He has never worked in the scientific field or even in an organisation. He is completely unqualified to do the job of CEO of anything at all, let alone a science council.

For the sake of comparison, and to help you understand just how bad this situation is, this the man he replaced (by his own decision).