Transport Minister says: so what if transport authority CEO wheels and deals on the side?

Transport Minister Joe Mizzi has told the Times of Malta that it doesn’t matter one jot to him that the transport authority CEO, James Piscopo, has set up a company to do a little (or a lot) of personal business on the side.

“I don’t see any problem with James Piscopo carrying out his private business,” he said. “I couldn’t find any conflict of interest in any of this.”

He drew comparisons with lawyer-MPs who carry on their private professional practice. But that’s a bit disingenuous, isn’t it? MPs are permitted private practice (they’re not paid enough as MPs anyway) and their work is never going to be in conflict with their parliamentary vote or questions, unless they are receiving money from clients to ask questions in parliament or vote a particular way, which is pretty difficult with our systems of parliamentary scrutiny and the whip. And in any case, you don’t need clients or private work to be subject to that kind of bribery, as cases in other parliaments, most notably the House of Commons, have shown.

But the CEO of a state transport authority – who is paid a full, generous salary for total commitment to the post – setting up and running a private consultancy on the side is another matter altogether. It is not just the fact that he is paid to give his complete time and attention to his transport authority role, but there is also the obvious: he is going to pick up work from people who want to use his connections rather than his amazing consultancy skills.

And that’s a no-no.

This is like that crook John Dalli with his “consultancy firm”, John Dalli & Associates, which he ran when he was a minister of the Maltese government and carried on when he was a European Commissioner. Challenged about it, he would insist that it was his daughters Claire Gauci Borda and Louisa Dalli who ran the outfit, but it was called John Dalli & Associates, wasn’t it, and we all know at this late stage just who was fixing the business.

The Transport Minister – shopping at Primark in Marble Arch, London, with his personal assistant some months ago.

James Piscopo, the former Labour Party CEO who was moved to the state payroll as Transport Malta CEO in March 2013.