Five months on, and Leo Brincat and Joe Mizzi are still fighting over George Pullicino’s former staff
Mario Cutajar, head of the civil service and secretary to cabinet (right) on holiday this week, taking a break from trying to sort out the row over staff between Herr Flick and Joe Mizzi
Five months ago, after the general election, the Ministry of Rural Affairs and Resources (formerly George Pullicino’s portfolio) was split between Joe Mizzi as Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, and Leo Brincat as Minister of the Environment.
Joe Mizzi took the Floriana offices (across the road from the Hotel Phoenicia) which Pullicino had been using. Herr Flick hoofed it to Casa Leone in Santa Venera, already a government office and immediately treated the public to a series of accusations about stolen computers and desks (which had simply been returned to the people who had rented them out).
But five months on, George Pullicino’s staff are still mainly in Joe Mizzi’s Floriana building, where they had been from the start, while the protracted row goes on between Mizzi and Herr Flick about who is taking who, who wants to leave Floriana and who does not.
You see, there is an added problem. Immediately after the election, Herr Flick knew already that Casa Leone wouldn’t be big enough for him, even though the staff he is supposed to have taken are still with Joe Mizzi.
So just days after Labour were elected, they entered into a contract with the family of failed Labour candidate Marion Mizzi and had the government lease the defunct department store building on Aldo Moro Road in Marsa, Millennia, for Eur60,000 for six months.
But most staff from the Floriana office are refusing to go there because – apart from being in a horrible environment on a main road in the middle of nowhere – it is not designed or equipped as an office building and is generally substandard for that purpose.
Three weeks ago, some kind of agreement seemed to have been reached on which staff would move, but as they were moving out, Minister Joe Mizzi marched in and said “Waqqfu kollox!”
So they are back to square one. The government is paying rent of Eur10,0000 a month for Millennia, which remains contested by staff refusing to go there. Before long, the six-month lease contract will be up, Eur60,000 will have gone down the drain, and will have to be renewed, at the same rent or more.
Mario Cutajar, head of the civil service and a former GWU boss, hasn’t been able to sort the situation out. So he is currently taking a break in Gozo (see picture).
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Who have thought that Joe Mizzi had leverage over Herr Flick.
Why are most people’s clothes do drab and dull? This picture could have been taken in the 70s, 80s, or even 90s. How I miss London.
Try wearing trendy attire in this hot humid weather. The cooler the weather the easier it is to choose from a wider range of clothing.
Horizontal stripes and baggy short only look good on cute babies. Portly old men with short legs are not babies, nor are they cute.
Dear king rat,
I never made any mention of ‘fashion trends’. I hate them with a passion and wouldn’t expect a middle aged person to sport them. I’m just commenting on the fact that the clothes looked washed to hell and back, all the colour is gone. Drive through Hamrun and you’ll see nothing but greyed and washed out colours and ‘trendy’ clothes from xi bicca hanut ta’ Sqallija. I wear polos, but a green is green and a blue is blue.
Din id-darba Leo Brincat ma ghajjarx lil gvern ta’ qablu li sabu hofra meta telghu fil-gvern.
Sabu minjiera flus u qed jisparpaljawhom bl-addocc.
if you look back you might find that the ex Millenia building was already being used by the previous government as offices… so nothing new in using this building…
The current government is not using this building. It is paying rent for it.
Up until this July it was being used by MEIB and MTI. MTI started to move out beginning of this month and I’m not sure what has happened to MEIB staff. I suspect they’re still using the building as only last week I phoned there thinking I’d be reaching someone from MTI and got a ‘Hello, MEIB’. This said, I’m not sure to what extent it is being used.
http://mathildasanthropologyblog.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/neander-human-comp.jpg
At Floriana staff from both departments (works and agriculture) had been working in the same offices for years. When the decision was taken to move separate them, a list of people (a mix from both departments) to be transferred out was issued.
This was then put on hold because there was a high level “resignation”. In the time it took to replace him, people who, for various personal or financial reasons, wanted to stay irrespective of which department they came from originally, managed to get their names off the list, and a new list was issued.
At the moment no one has moved yet, even though at one point emails were sent (after hours for some of the flextime workers) to report to work to Marsa.