Broadcasting Authority chairman lambasted by staff for ignorance, rudeness and aggression teaches “corporate and social etiquette” at University of Malta

Tanya Borg Cardona, the Broadcasting Authority chairman who has provoked the unprecedented situation of public mutiny against her by BA staff and management, who cite her rudeness, aggression, incompetence and ignorance of the requirements of her role, is now giving courses in ‘corporate and social etiquette’ under the University of Malta’s Degree Plus programme.

Degree Plus is not an academic programme, but offers extra-curricular training for students. The timetable published below shows that Mrs Borg Cardona was giving her lectures in corporate and social etiquette at the same time that Broadcasting Authority staff were reporting publicly on how she regularly insulted and threatened them, and how she bullied one of the quietest employees by whipping all her personal possessions off her desk and tossing them into the bin, then emailed the rest of the office to say that the same thing would happen to them if they didn’t tidy up.

In February last year, Mrs Borg Cardona was quietly given a position as a ‘person of trust’ in the deputy Prime Minister’s office. Louis Grech engaged her, with no requirements to be in the office at specific times, for €27,000 a year, to advise on “protocol” in relation to Malta’s EU presidency a year later. This despite the fact that protocol is a field of diplomacy and not a subdivision of social etiquette, and civil servants at the Foreign Ministry are trained in protocol matters.

The following month, Prime Minister Muscat appointed Mrs Borg Cardona chairman of the Broadcasting Authority, in violation of the rules which do not allow public officers and government ‘persons of trust’ to occupy this position. Mrs Borg Cardona’s ‘person of trust’ status in the deputy Prime Minister’s office was not declared to the Broadcasting Authority board.

Back in September, the “EU Presidency Unit” in the deputy Prime Minister’s office emailed all Presidency liason officers, urging them to attend Mrs Borg Cardona’s “corporate and social etiquette lectures”. A transcript of the email follows.

Date: 29 Sep 2016 14:27
Subject: Corporate and Social Etiquette Lectures.
To: 
Cc: 

Dear all
 
Hope this e mail finds you well.
 
I am writing to inform you that Ms Tanya Borg Cardona will be giving lectures on the Degree Plus course at the University of Malta.
 
We encourage you to enrol to these ongoing lectures since it will help you understand  Corporate and Social Etiquette.
 
Attending these lectures will help you to understand how  to behave sensibly and appropriately at the workplace to create an everlasting impression, thus this will help you during the EU Presidency.
 
If you need more information please do not hesitate to contact me back.
 
Regards

Tanya Borg Cardona, the deputy Prime Minister’s ‘person of trust’ and protocol consultant, who is also chairman of the Broadcasting Authority.