Marisa Schembri, former consort of cocaine trafficker and Soho whoremonger Chalie Il-Likk and of Judge Lino Farrugia Sacco (not concurrently), engaged as ‘public relations and logistics consultant’ to Minister Helena Dalli
Minister Helena Dalli has put her personal friend Marisa Schembri nee Caruana on the ministry pay-roll. Ms Schembri (pictured here with Labour mayor of Zurrieq and convicted criminal Natius Farrugia at a transgender wedding he celebrated recently) used to work for several years selling advertising for a magazine publishing company and has no experience that could be useful in a cabinet minister’s office.
Marisa Schembri lived for years with a former Soho whoremonger and cocaine trafficker, Charlie l-Likk, who had retired to Gozo. More recently, she was involved in a fairly long relationship with Judge Lino Farrugia Sacco, and with a variety of prominent married men.
I asked the Ministry about this appointment, and received a reply from Helena Dalli’s communications coordinator, Reuben Sciberras, who said that the Ministry “has engaged the services of Ms Marisa Schembri as public relations and logistics consultant”.
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I seriously CAN NOT take this bullshit corrupt government any longer. If the f..cking Nationalists don’t get off their ass and realize the level of corruption, then we all deserve it! Kif xbajt!
What do you expect now?
The PN is doing its best…how about you? What are you doing?
I can’t stand this sort of comment. Why should the Nationalist Party take the blame for these kind of appointments ? What do you expect them to do ?
Whether we all deserve it ? Definitely not. I did not vote for this government. So please do not include me in your statements, I do not deserve it.
I only blame the switchers who are old enough (over 45) to know what it is like to be under a Labour government.
He’s a concerned citizen, and probably stays clear of corruption himself. But he is a single individual.
The Nationalist Party is an entire party with a mass of resources at its back. And its performance hasn’t been impressive.
I say shape up or ship out.
I expect that this would finally, hopefully stop, but every day we hear of new appointments everywhere.
I know exactly that the PN is doing its best and I have every faith in the PN leadership and what they stand for.
The strength of a party is not shown by the mass of resources (PL has plenty at the moment and the PN ‘s has been grossly reduced ) , but with the mass of single individuals.
@H.P. Baxxter,
I voiced a similar opinion to yours previously but was called an armchair critic. It seems like its a case of ‘jahasra’ for the PN who, ‘msieken’ are doing their best with limited resources.
In the meantime those of us who voted PN expect our vote to count and if we cannot have an effective Nationalist Party in govenrment, then the least we expect is an effective Nationalist Opposition.
Having the Opposition MPs sitting back on the Opposition side of parliament warming their benches and shaking their heads in non-confrontational disapproval is nowhere near enough. It is high time indeed to get moving as the country is seriously going to the dogs.
Stop complaining and go do something about it. Any bit of help, helps.
Midd idejk u hallik minn-nejk, man.
The Nationalists cannot stop the appointments, but what they could do is hammer home literally every day the reality of what is going on, in a language that everyone can understand.
Persons with a normal level of intelligence, some with the added bonus of decent moral values, do not need any convincing. It’s the poor souls who are excited at a two cents drop in the price of petrol even when they use diesel who need help.
Has her brother Paul been handed anything yet?
I would have rather thought of addressing that to the Maltese public, who voted Labour in the last election in the hope that they (PL) will be a ‘better’ government. With all due respect, now they’re getting what they deserved.
Ghax ‘Malta taghna ILKOLL’, don’t find it funny any more.
What a lovely bunch.
Is she a transgender or a real woman? From the photos she looks much more like the first. I knew Chalie l-Likk, and whilst he was proud about whips and other sadomasochistic ‘toys’ in the bedroom, I never knew he was into trans as well.
[Daphne – Well, if you really knew Chalie l-Likk then you would also have known Marisa Schembri because she lived with him. You would have known, too, that she is most definitely not transgender, even if the fact that she has a married surname did not tell you that in the first place. She was, in fact, really quite beautiful at the time and not at all the way she looks now, which is the result of extensive surgical interventions, fillers and botox that have resulted in the same sort of face that transgender women achieve through using the same processes, hence your mistake.]
OK, now I remember, she is the same woman. Unbelievable! She was really beautiful at the time, much taller than Charlie and always very elegant.
I do not remember names so I did not think she was the same person.
Are we to assume that this appointment was advertised for potential candidates?
Putting aside the friendship she has with the minister, is she at least qualified for the job? Was she perhaps underemployed at her previous job?
[Daphne – No, she is not. She is highly qualified in advertising sales, and very good at it, but does not have the required qualifications, training, experience, knowledge or educational level for ‘public relations and logistics’. But that is not the point. The point is that she was put on the pay-roll by the Minister, her personal friend, after she had to leave her job elsewhere, as a favour to help her out of a tight spot. That would have been the case even if she were qualified, and it would still have been wrong. That she is not qualified does not make it wrong where it would otherwise have been right. It just makes the situation worse.]
Ha! So finally someone gets it. This is precisely the sort of grace and favour appointment that the Nationalist administration specialised in.
At best, qualified but still wrong.
At worst, incompetent and unqualified and still wrong.
[Daphne – You are wrong. No Nationalist government ever employed somebody with the appalling (deservedly so) reputation, lack of discretion and extreme vulgarity of Ms Schembri in any ‘front of house’ position or ministerial secretariat. And my experience goes back to 1990. All ministerial aides and employees in private secretariats were subject to background checks. Ms Schembri was engaged in advertising sales for The Sunday Circle precisely because of her lack of restraint (I hesitate to use a more precise description). Those are the very qualities that should have made her unsuitable for her new role.]
Daphne is right, Baxxter, and my experience with the Nationalist Party goes back to 1980, when it was in Opposition.
I assure you it’s only been these past five years when Gonzi was surrounded by incompetent characters with underhand motives that quality went down a few notches but never to these decadent levels of indecency, of course.
I have faith that the PN is having things sorted, noted and listed for actioning.
I beg to differ. You cannot imagine how many former PN voters deserted to Labour last year because relatively incompetent people (who are staunch Labour supporters) were promoted throughout the years wherever the government had a say so as to keep things “equal” even if they did not deserve it.
Is the Labour government working in the same manner?
The truth is that Malta was really taghna lkoll under PN administrations.
And the truth is that it is these same people that were undermining the PN government from within, purposely frustrating clients, and sabotaging the government’s service delivery.
Joseph Muscat was already calling the shots (through these people) years before the last election.
Baxxter but why do you always try to put the previous administration on the same shameful level as this one? In what way have the Nationalists failed you?
At least under Labour they’re hamalli, so they’re easy to pick out, and then we can identify they incompetents. Under the Nationalist administration, they’d be polished types, so everyone just assumed they were also eminently qualified and competent, and left it at that.
I don’t put the previous administration on the same level as this one on every issue. But on the issue of grace and favour appointments given to incompetents or otherwise, I will. Because it happened and I was there.
I agree 100% with A+ on this one.
Sorry guys, could not agree more with Baxxter here. There were appalling errors of judgement made by the PN. Especially in Malta Enterprise, where the jobs for the boys mentality was rife. Incompetent people who would have failed hopelessly anywhere else were given jobs and salaries beyond their wildest deems.
No Daphne, Baxxter is right. Very right. Gonzi surrounded himself with incompetents who were more interested in micro-managing a fqir and batut situation than helping the PM govern. I know, I was there, and watched that ship burn and sink with hardly a tear for its passing.
The PN, and Simon Busuttil in particular, really needs to pull its socks up. There is too much dead wood in the MP ranks now: people who were front-liners and have now retired to an obscurity of consultancies and directorships whilst still warming their seat as MPs.
I am not very pleased with some EP candidates either. Some of them don’t have any depth, whilst one of them had it so good under the PN that he can retire on what he has made already. The MLP is correct on that one.
The PN needs to be taken over by people who care, and whilst Simon Buuttil is there, with his installed klikka already not allowing anyone any space, then the PN is doomed.
[Daphne – I can’t stand comments like yours, and I can’t stand this self-undermining and self-destructive attitude. You really have a problem and had better deal with it. Most of your comments are like this, and they are so offensive. I take it personally because it’s thanks to you and others like you that there was so much negative talk that accumulated into a wave of resentment for the PN and landed us with this rubbish government. So thanks a lot. And you’re still at it. Impressive.
The Labour Party, with its load of garbage, its terrible history and its sordid present, talks itself up like nobody’s business, while over the last few years the Nationalist Party has been undermined from within and by its own ‘supporters’ and even some of its politicians with defeatist talk and negativity like yours.
The Nationalist Party has poor EP candidates? The Labour Party is right about that? I am on the verge of saying that you probably need to go to the doctor to get yourself checked for signs of depression which might be obscuring your sense of perspective.
The Nationalist Party has such a good list that every day I change my view as to whom I want to give my number one vote. It has the best list it’s had in EP elections since 2004. It even has statement-candidates – people who, by their choice to stand on the PN ticket, have made a statement about the PN, and that is in itself a message to other people about the PN.
Helga Ellul, for one – did she go with Labour because they’re on a winning streak and they would have made sure she wins and made a real fuss about her? No, she went to the PN. Jonathan Shaw is another one – whatever you might think of him personally, he is very much part of the ‘maaaaa, the Nationalists are so over, we need a change’ crowd. Most of his friends are or were like that, his extended network. Yet he made a statement and stood on the PN ticket. Even if he doesn’t make it, his choice – sticking his neck out by standing on the PN ticket when the PN is so very unfashionable with his crowd and his customer base – is a strong message to them. That counts for a lot.
It would have been much easier for Shaw to stand on the Labour ticket and he’d have had more chances of success, because he would have been lionised as a ‘scalp’. And his brother is already a Labour politician – a Valletta councillor.
Roberta Metsola is bad? Line her up against Marlene Mizzi and Miriam Dalli and tell me who’s aeons ahead in terms of presentation, speaking ability, nous and competence.
I have neither the time or the inclination to run through the rest of the list. If you think the PN candidates are so bad, why don’t you switch to Labour and vote for Joseph Cuschieri? Or Alfred Sant? What a shame you can’t now vote for Cyrus Engerer.
Just stop it once and for all – people like you are such downers and so annoying to everyone else. It is self-defeating talk like yours that did so much damage – just don’t carry on.
And as for the rest of it, the subject under discussion here is ministers’ appointments to their private secretariat, not government appointments generally, so please stick to it.
If you want to discuss jobs and consultancies at Malta Enterprise, then I suggest that instead of more self-undermining talk about what the PN government did (who in hell cares now, and exactly how is it relevant?) you take a look at Malta Enterprise as it is now – Shiv Nair, Mario Vella, Sai Mizzi, Jimmy Magro, It-Torca’s ex editor & c & c – and tell me how it even begins to compare. You should re-assess your values and your outlook, because you really have a problem and your problem has caused and is causing problems for others, thereby increasing your own.]
Are you sure that’s her in the picture? She looks like a transgender.
[Daphne – I’m positive. That is exactly what she now looks like.]
Goodness, how she’s changed for the worse, Alla jbierek.
She was quite a looker and a hooker when I last saw her but that must have been years ago around the time Chris Engerer sold his first batch of marijuana.
She must have been the Quality Inspector. Does everyone have to wait until the next election to get these hangers-on out of office? What about local elections?
How much is Ms Schembri being paid? It’s a government appointment, so we should be told.
She has been going around with Helena Dalli to quite a number of official engagements for some weeks now.
I saw her at a couple of conferences and public events starting at least since last March. At the time we thought she was her personal assistant (though, in hindsight, it does explain why she was never dressed suitably for the occasion).
Cyrus Engerer and Marisa Schembri, together in her office: Helena Dalli had better take care. The first has a track record of acquiring information that can be used against you; the second shoots her mouth off and has absolutely no discretion.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140512/local/pn-reacts-as-minister-says-engerer-has-paid-for-his-mistakes-will-be-retained-as-consultant.518714
So, does this “Tghana lkoll” recruitment agency have a limited number of vacancies or is it going to recruit thousands up till the next election?
They will continue to recruit thousands until they hit a wall with “Bailout” written on it.
Sometimes I get the feeling that if this government continues in this direction, Malta will be in a sorry state in few years time and it will be next to impossible to recoup.
Knowing some of the people being recruited, I am sure they have no ability to contribute to the well being and advancement of this country.
Insomma, Helena Dalli qed tarma bil-qhab ta’ kwalunkwe sess, mid-dehra. “A new way of doing politics”.
Qhab igibu l- qhab u c-cirku dejjem jikber ghal tal-qalba. Anke l-Laburisti qed iddejjaqhom din. Helena Dalli imissa toqghod attenta. Hija hafna ahjar minn hekk, u ma jixqarilhiex tassocja ruha ma’ xi hadd baxx u bla skrupli u morali bhal Marisa Schembri.
I wonder how much she’s paid, how many hours she puts in, and what sort of logistics she advises on.
I`m off to Castille with my foldable stool waiting for the angle of good tidings to holds his next press release informing us that unemployment records have to be adjusted to read -1.
We were always half jokingly warned to hide our husbands when she is around. Especially if our husbands/boyfriends/companions are anyone with money or power.
Why do you need a public relations consultant when you have a communications coordinator?
are we saying that one’s sex life should be scrutinised before being employed within the public service? and according to which criteria, given that such matters are extremely subjective?
[Daphne – Ms Schembri is not in the public service, but in a cabinet minister’s private secretariat, which means that she holds her job only as long as the minister holds hers. And yes, of course members of a cabinet minister’s private secretariat should be scrutinised at all levels for anything which might prove a security risk either to members of the public (because people in private secretariats have access to certain information) or to the minister her/himself because of information leaks and breaches of trust. Ms Schembri is possibly one of the most indiscreet people I have ever met in my life. I know exactly what a wide range of men’s private parts look like and what their sexual predilections are, even though I have never so much as had lunch with them myself. Sex life is one thing – promiscuity with well-connected individuals is another. I assume that the way she talks about the men she has slept with, she will have no problem talking about what goes on in the office – to them or to others. That is a reasonable assumption to make. People who have no standards in their sex life – who will sleep with anyone useful to their purposes regardless of the consequences to that person’s family – will generally tend to have no standards about maintaining discretion on work-related matters. And in a cabinet minister’s private secretariat, that’s a pretty serious matter.]
Well, in that case, she is Helena Dalli’s problem.
[Daphne – She’s your problem too.]
Lil Malta gabuwa BURDELL!
How disgusting. As soon as someone gets a bit of power it goes straight to their heads! Thank God some people are paying attention to such matters – like Daphne is.
A NATION OF SHEEP WILL HAVE A GOVERNMENT OF WOLVES!
There are some lions having a snooze.
I really have to comment here because I am so tired of hearing the inevitable rejoinder that ‘the other lot were just as bad’. When it comes to engagement in private secretariats, a process I was closely involved in from the start in 1998, there was a centrally monitored system for ensuring that these engagements were appropriate.
1 In 1998 the Cabinet approved a STANDARD organisation structure for each and every secretariat with fixed positions. Posts could not be created on a whim. These positions were pegged to the appropriate Public Service salary scales and the total package for each one, including any allowances, were also standard.
2 This organisation structure was geared to ensure that the overall majority of secretariat employees were public officers (which also meant that the impact on the salary bill was controlled); only three posts, in addition to the driver posts, could be filled from outside the government.
3 All persons proposed had to be submitted for the approval of the Prime Minister. This was only done after a full security check was carried out. The person’s skills and qualifications also had to be suitable. For example, regulations required that if a public officer was proposed, his or her substantive salary scale had to be of a similar level to the salary scale of the secretariat post in question. You could never have a situation therefore where a clerk (substantive scale 16) was suddenly trumped up to a post linked anywhere above scale 10.
4 All engagements were regulated by a standard contract with a clear position description. Inter alia, this clearly specified that the officer could not engage in other work/employment outside the secretariat against remuneration. It further specified that the officer could not sit on government boards against remuneration. The intention here was to eliminate ‘double benefits’ at all times. On this basis, it would have been impossible to have a situation where a full-time secretariat employee on contract to have a separate and concurrent contract with another ministry or indeed any other area of the government. On the other hand this seems to be a common practice under the new administration.
5 Yes, of course consultants were engaged at ministry level – however nowhere near the scale and number we are seeing now, where I suspect a ‘Consultant on Silly Walks’ is at this very moment waiting in the wings at a ministry near you.
6 The system was not perfect and mistakes were made along the way. In the main, however, it was rigorous and it was there, unlike the undignified free for all we are currently witnessing.
Minghand Charlie il-Likk xi daqqtejn kienet taqla nahseb.