Ex Super One reporter appointed manager at the Department of Information

Melissa Vella Buhagiar, a former Labour Party employee and Super One reporter, has been appointed Manager for Image Building and Projection at the government’s Department of Information.

Vella Buhagiar is on the state payroll already – as ‘communications coordinator’ in the office of the principal permanent secretary and cabinet secretary, Mario Cutajar. Because of course, the PPS/cabinet secretary is obliged to do such a lot of communicating with the media in the course of his duties.

Insiders at the Office of the Prime Minister inform me that despite being appointed manager at the Department of Information, Vella Buhagiar will keep her desk in Mario Cutajar’s office, but her new status will allow her to be paid at managerial grade. Through this appointment, she is also now part of the permanent civil service with a job on the state payroll for life. Communications coordinators are appointed on a ‘position of trust’ basis and do not form part of the permanent civil service unless they are actually recruited from it. They lose their jobs when their boss goes.

The new manager for image building and projection at the Department of Information (but really in Mario Cutajar’s office) – Melissa Vella Buhagiar