The Economy Minister’s chief of staff is his business partner

It turns out that Chris Cardona put his own business partner, Mario Azzopardi on the public payroll as his chief of staff at the Ministry for the Economy. Cardona and Azzopardi, together with construction magnate Carmelo Penza and a relative of Azzopardi’s, own 25% each of Sapmac Ltd, a real estate development company.

In July 2013, the Minister resigned his directorship and judicial representation of the company – see here C_33369_D7_0 – but as you will see from the company details below, his chief of staff is still a director. More pertinently still, no director has been appointed to replace the Minister, which means that his chief of staff is representing his interests on the board.

So here we have a situation in which the chief of staff to the Minister for the Economy is also a director of a real estate development company – and one in which the Minister himself is a shareholder, with the chief of staff representing the Minister’s interests as well as his own.

Talk about corruption and abuse, about conflict of interest. Exactly what are these awful people? How can the Economy Minister have any kind of professional relationship with his chief of staff if his chief of staff is also his drinking buddy and his business partner? And what exactly is going on there, in that situation?

In three years they have managed to corrupt the entire system. It’s unbelievable.

The company details for Sapmac Ltd are in the screenshots below, and the memorandum and articles of association are here: C_33369_D001

The Economy Minister, Chris Cardona, with his chief of staff, Mario Azzopardi, who is also his long-time business partner and fellow shareholder in business.