The way in which Lara Boffa-Billboard was employed at the MCST is even more abusive than we thought
Lara Billboard (I don’t think I should be using her surname when she sold it) is the new PRO (and “personal assistant to senior management”) at the Malta Council for Science and Technology. But she has refused to take to her superiors my questions about the methods used for her engagement.
And her superiors, being cowed by the fact that she is a personal protegee of the prime minister and of chairman Pullicino Orlando, will not be summoning her to their desks any time soon to deal with the matter and reprimand her for insulting journalists on Facebook.
So I have taken the matter into my own hands and started, as Lara Billboard sarcastically suggested, with the Employment & Training Corporation. I thought it useless to go through official channels, but my international worldwide network of spies proved useful in this regard.
And what I discovered is even worse than we thought, and more abusive. Lara Boffa-Billboard had been earmarked for the job (or was it the other way round) at the outset. But to avoid a situation in which she was handed the job directly, and because Malta Council for Science and Technology procedure does not allow, on paper, for direct appointments to staff, the standard corrupt, duplicitous system (‘paraventu’) of calling people in for interviews was used – through the Employment & Training Corporation.
People were called in for interviews on the basis of their CVs. They went along to be interviewed, answered the expected questions, then received a rejection letter and Lara Boffa-Billboard was handed the job.
My international worldwide network of spies came up trumps in another respect: two of the applicants/interviewees and their CVs. The qualifications and experience of both, in terms of direct relevance to the job, are infinitely superior to those of Ms Boffa-Billboard. And when I say that, I speak as somebody with sufficiently long experience in the field to know what she is talking about.
Just as I know what I am talking about when I say that – politics apart – Ms Boffa-Billboard is not qualified for the job – not in terms of actual professional qualifications, not in terms of actual professional experience, not in terms of intelligence and the ability to handle situations (as she has proved directly) and certainly not in terms of natural ability as she clearly does not know what the job entails, or what its parameters and responsibilities are.
So how is this more shocking than appointing her directly? Well, I should hope that much is obvious. Several people had their time wasted and their hopes raised when they had no prospect at all of getting the job. Worse than that, they were abused like tools to create the fiction that Lara Boffa-Billboard got her job by competing for it and emerging as the most qualified and able. That people are treated this way to serve the interests of a political favourite, at the expense of the public coffers, is disgusting. THIS is corruption.
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Muscat ser ihalli dawn il hnizrijiet issiru? Dan tela’ fil-gvern ghax ma rridx li ikomplu jsiru dawn il-hnizrijiet.
Ma jistax jghid li ma jafx, ghax fl-ewwel diskors tieghu kien qal li ser ikun seqer fuq il-Ministri tieghu.
Qum minn hemm Joseph u ara x’qed jaghmlu l-Ministri li tant tfahhart bijhom.
“Mr Speaker,
Honourable members of the House of Representatives,
We have opened a new chapter in the history of this people. The time for pique, partisanship, arrogance in leadership, at all levels of administration, must become a part of the past. This will be a Government that looks towards building the future, rather than copying the past. This will be a Government which will lead with a sense of humility and will be ready to take decisions.
With the sign that it gave in the last general election the Maltese public has made it clear to all of us that it is tired of the politics of the past. It is a message to the political class and to all those who will form part of this administration and of this Parliament.”
Muscat’s (?) own words in the Speech from the Throne read out by the President of the Republic, 6 April 2013.
http://www.maltastar.com/dart/20130407-the-speech-from-the-throne
Aye, but talk is cheap, ciccio
Sickening.
This Government’s tag (or road map) is:
Say anything (as long as is morally, legally and politically nice & attractive) but do whatever is in the interest of the movement, our friends and loyal group.
Poor country! Marketing, marketing and marketing. Muscat’s statements for removal of old politics, inclusion of everyone and to lead as humble as possible as if he has won election by one vote, are nothing but nice talk and nothing else. The opposite is happening.
Is this how politics are done? Is this all you need to have to gain trust of people and power, by being nice and promise the golden future and the preaching of sharing and equality and then nothing is done to these aims?
Ghandek xi dubju jekk jafx Joseph Muscat b’din il-bicca tax-control jekk qed tghidlek Daphne li kienet ilha ppjanata?
Daphne, I read “had been earmarked” as meaning before the election. Please correct me if I’m wrong.
Il-Ministru tal-MCST huwwa Joseph Muscat, il-Prim Ministru.
I was one of those people who sat for the Air Malta exam way back in Feb 1987 and for which I placed 6th overall out of 1800 people. Then I went for an interview which I also succesfully passed but I was not given the job because I was not from Zejtun.
Class mates who did not even pass the exam were employed with Air Malta and they are still working there. A day after the result of the election in 1987, all the exam papers and interview results were burnt to ashes in the courtyard of the Air Malta offices.
The PL movement is a noble one based on honesty, Lara Boffa said.
There you go. They are taking fellow intelligent, qualified citizens for a ridiculous “meritokrazija” ride.
Hu go fik Gahan.
Let’s have her job description.
And isn’t it potentially a conflict of interest being director at Enemalta and employed at the MCST conjunctively?
I can imagine some proposal to engage the MCST to handle some research for the corporation. The fees.
There’s been a lot of talk about solar panels, the latest launch declared a fallacy by the GRTU.
If she got the job through the ETC, then it must have been advertised.
Does anyone have a copy? It’d be interesting to see what sort of qualifications and experience were required.
When a state entity has a vacancy the ETC is informed and submits details of persons who have the necessary qualifications and who are registering for employment under Part 1 of the ETC register (i.e. unemployed persons). Such persons are requested by the ETC to attend an interview with the prospective employer.
If no interviewees are successful, the ETC grants permission to advertise the vacancy in the press. The ETC also submits details of persons with the necessary qualifications and who are registering under Part 3 of the ETC register (i.e. persons who are employed and who are looking to change employment). These persons are to be interviewed together with applications received as a result of the public call.
If I was one of the unsuccessful candidates, provided that I had the necessary qualifications, I would definitely challenge the decision to employ Ms Boffa.
The best person for certain jobs may be neither unemployed nor seeking alternative employment. It is absurd to put, say, senior management on the same level as a level 1 clerk in the civil service.
Malta is starting to make Catania look like the kind of place you can get a fair go and possibly be hired on the basis of actual ability and merit.
Can the unsuccessful candidates – the ones with better qualifications than Ms. Billboard – take the matter to the Ombudsman? The MCST is a public body after all.
Can they take the case to the Public Service Commission?
No wonder this website has ranked 4th.
Good job Daphne and the rest of the international worldwide network of spies.
Agree 100%
This method of earmarking positions has been around for ages under both political parties. At least one case I know of, that happened years ago involved a fresh graduate being recruited from the ETC register. So far so good except within a matter of a few months at a graduate entry level position this person was promoted without any calls for applications to head a department within the same quango. In this case the connection wasn’t political. The Nationalist in charge of running the place promoted a Labourite on the basis of being a family friend.
Coincidentally a number of employees in the civil service who hung around party headquarters during the last administrations somehow happened to get promoted to senior positions in the civil service.
On March 9, one administration was voted out in the hope of transforming Malta into a fair and just society and the people get more of the same.
A very high percentage of Malta’s high flyers/well paid workers have climbed up the conventional ladder of success either thanks to having access to capital/influential persons via birth or networking or by jumping onto a political bandwagon.
For the rest there are/used to be mediocre windows of opportunity until a certain age, if you can stomach to see more nepotism in practice at the work place that is, otherwise there is the dole.
My only advice to the upcoming generation would be to invest only in studying to obtain knowledge and skills that are internationally transferable and pack up for greener pastures at the very latest by your late twenties when you are young enough for employers to mould you.
This should be reposted on its own, for it is the painful truth.
Should the names of the people who interviewed her be made public. Come on, wake up from your slumber please PN.
My thoughts exactly! Jekk se nibqghu sejrin hekk mhux 5 snin ha naghmlu imma anke 10 u 15.
This is what they meant by meritocracy.
I just feel so angry at all the stupid switchers who believed them.
We will no doubt get the standard reply i.e. the Nationalists were just as bad. So far Labour has surpassed the Nationalists for indiscretions. Let see if they can better them at managing the country’s finances.
They shoot themselves in the foot every time they say that. The promised meritocracy, didn’t they?
To oxo:
“……… to beguile the time look like the time; bear welcome in your eye, your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under it” – Lady Macbeth
Anybody wants a profile of each and everyone of God’s human creations, consult Shakespeare. We’re all there.