More dispatches from Labour’s state-funded gravy-train
Times of Malta reports this morning that the government is resisting all of its requests for information on the salary packages of former Labour Party officials and employees who have been given senior-level jobs at Malta Enterprise.
It reports:
With the exception of the deputy chairman and Malta Industrial Parks CEO Joshua Zammit, all posts were given to former Labour Party officials.
Questions sent by Times of Malta several weeks ago remained unanswered.
The officials are Jimmy Magro, former PL general secretary, former Labour education secretary Aleks Farrugia, Joe Borg, a former aide to Alfred Sant.
It is not just ex Labour Party officials, either. Mrs Konrad Mizzi did not hold employment at the Labour Party, but her appointment as special envoy for Malta Enterprise in China is even more eyebrow-raising, and the government has repeatedly refused to say what she is paid or even what she is doing there.
Joshua Zammit’s appointment is questionable as an act of political favouritism, too. This is what I wrote about him on 26 March last year, when Times of Malta reported that he had stepped down as president of the Malta Employers Association:
Take note of this story because Joshua Zammit, the man who rushed out a Malta Employers Association statement of approval of Konrad Mizzi’s power plan just hours after it was made public in the first days of the election campaign, is going to be another one to receive his favourite political party’s blessing.
He had issued that statement unilaterally, causing a great deal of consternation among his MEA colleagues who did not necessarily agree with it.
The word is that this Air Malta man is going to find himself rising rapidly through the ranks.
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http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2013/03/next-up-joshua-zammit/
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140317/local/no-details-on-pay-and-perks-at-malta-enterprise.510990
Malta’s robber barons.
Where do you get these gems from, Antoine Vella? Is there importation legal?
Doesn’t it occur to anyone that this is precisely the sort of non-actionable institutionalised corruption and cronyism that was the Nationalist government’s undoing, and the reason for the Taghna Lkoll popular revolt?
There was cronysim under PN, but a good number of the appointees were rather capable and actually did a good job. Not all, mind you, but many.
Quite a few of the cronies were actually Labour supporters, often openly so.
I’m not too happy with an ex post facto justification, viz. the guy was made CEO because he’s in the inner circle (PN or Labour, mind), but as luck would have it, he turned out to be quite capable. What sort of a selection process is that?
Let us hope that once this Labour mess is over in 2018, the Nationalist Party will have sobered up enough to start acting like a 21st century European governing party.
So anyone capable who happens to have declared support for a political party is disqualified? It’s true that we have few true independents, but I know for a fact that many officials, even ones with a PN tendency, would have been perfectly happy to serve under a Labour administration because they are professionals. Many were simply not given the opportunity: the Permanent Secretaries, career ambassadors and a host of others.
No. Please read what I wrote. It’s not about political allegiance, but cronyism.
Almost none of it is against the rules – there’s the rub. You just issue a call for applications and then choose the “friends of”. Or create a post that does not require a call for applications. Or create a post with a definite contract, renewable annually, so you get your friends in under the radar, and then just renew their contract.
That’s why it will never be eradicated.
H.P. Baxter, I think you are victim of PL’s propaganda. You make a blanket statement which I believe is incorrect.
One should make the distinction between boards and other positions of trust on the one hand and management posts in the civil service or government controlled agencies on the other.
For boards, it is acceptable to appoint people who are considered to be trustworthy by government. Hence, the appointment of political appointees as chairpersons and board members under the PN. Even if political appointees, efforts were made to appoint people who were competent.
For management posts in the public sector, the correct process is to issue a call for applications and choose the successful candidate in accordance with pre-established procedure and criteria.
From what I could see, the PN adopted this approach. ( In fact I know of several people who are critical of Laurence Gonzi’s government becasue it did not take enough care of its own.) The only two exceptions in the last legislature which I am aware of were MEPA’s CEO and the Environment Director. Both where competent for their jobs but I think it was a mistake for the PN not to follow procedure.
Baxter, are you aware of any other public sector posts which were appointed without a call for applications by the PN in government?
The most awful thing that Joseph Muscat is doing is appointing people in permanent posts in the public sector without the appropriate procedure. This is having and will continue to have a devastating effect on the civil service and on government controlled agencies.
For example, the appointment of Michelle Buttigieg as MTA representative in New York was wrong on many counts. She was appointed from outside MTA without proper procedure in a post which was created specifically for her. (The money would be much better spent in marketing at a European destination from where direct flights to Malta are available). Apparently, the reason for her appointment was friendship with the PM’s wife.
Like any employee, MTA personnel aspire for promotions and higher salaries. If I were an MTA employee, I would consider the appointment of an unqualifed person as back stabbing of the highest order by my employer (or more specifically backstabbing by the PL).
“Baxter [Double XX please: Baxxter], are you aware of any other public sector posts which were appointed without a call for applications by the PN in government?”
Yes I am.
I know of at least one director who was appointed by the previous government without a call for applications.
I also know of many others who were given hugely inflated salaries not at all commensurate with their duties, or with the salary of the previous holders of the post. That’s also corruption. But everything was done by the book.
You see, what I’m trying to say is that very often, the rules aren’t broken – they’re just wrong in the first place. And that’s the trouble with this country.
Whistleblowers? Don’t make me laugh. When has anyone ever rocked the boat in this blessed island?
Malta is a small place, and people talk – behind one another’s backs, to be sure, but they talk. The Nationalist government used to defend itself with the tired and worn mantra that in order to “attract quality” you need to pay huge salaries. Only the quality didn’t match the salaries. In many cases, performance was pathetic, qualifications largely hyped, and results not delivered. With our sclerotic political system, the only way to bring about change was to bring about a change in government. Hence “Taghna Lkoll”.
Baxxter, again I beg to differ. You give the impression that it was widespread. I do not exclude that there were instances where what you say happened but, from my perspective, it was very much the exception.
Let us take the CEO of Transport Malta as an example. He was selected following a call for applications and a rigorous selection process. The person selected was competent and was doing a good job. Following the elections, he was removed and replaced with someone else by direct appointment. Because of the rigorous manner he was selected and his doing a good job, his brusque replacement was most unjust.
It is human nature. If there are five applicants for a post, the four unsuccessful applicants will cry foul, even if the selection process is totally clean and fair.
There were, and there will always be, some politicians who will try to intervene in selection processes. Under the PN, however, the mechanisms for a fair selection process were applied and, in my opinion, in most cases they worked well.
I know of one person who gives the impression that he is extraordinarily competent in his work. I had the misfortune to work with him and can only describe him in one word – a disaster.
A call for applications was issued for a senior post. He was eligible and he applied. Thankfully the selection board saw through his bluff and chose someone else.
Needless to say, he kicked up a fuss about it. Because he grossly overrates himself, he is unable to realise and understand that the selection process was fair.
From my perspective, it was more widespread than we would wish. The public service is overstaffed.
How many CEOs, chairmen and directors does this tiny country need?
Most of them are cronies for the simple reason that you need to be in the inner circle to get noticed and headhunted.
Most of them also perform poorly, because the return on investment (if you wish to call their inflated salaries an investment) is very poor. Most of them also accumulate jobs (tenured positions at the University of Malta or membership of various government boards are a favourite).
I don’t think that’s right. If you’re paying someone a massive CEO’s salary, then that’s a full time job and they shouldn’t be doing anything else.
Transparency was a main topic before the last general election for Joseph Muscat. Nowadays,clandestine behaviour is the order of the day for Joseph Muscat and his cronies.
This is why the following statement by the Prime Minister, in the Q&A organised by Maltatoday, is so ludicrous:
” I would like to see a situation where choices of chairmen and other nominations are less at the discretion of politicians. It takes some time to change a culture and an inherited system of how persons are appointed in important positions for the executive to operate efficiently. But that is where I want to be in few years’ time.”
He wants to be there is a few years’ time. But not quite yet.
It’s all in a very direct statement he made: his government would work with anyone as long as they agree with the direction in which the administration wants to take the country.
This is a favourite Muscat tactic: a declaration of an absolute qualified by a restrictive consideration.
A couple of other Taghna lkoll appointments.
Carlo Mifsud – PL Candidate from Siggiewi is now CFO at the Lotteries and Gaming Authority
http://mt.linkedin.com/in/carlomifsud
Alex Cutajar – Student / Blogger who can’t write a decent sentence in English given a government post as shown in the comments in this article.
http://www.alexcutajar.com/2014/01/irregular-migration-george-vella-on-cnn.html#comment-form