Identity Malta change prompted ‘exodus’ of civil service heads

Article was updated at 4:16pm clarifying details with respect to the director who formerly headed the Land Registry.

The establishment of Identity Malta, a government agency that took over the operations of various government departments that dealt with identity management, prompted the departure of various civil servants that formerly headed individual departments.

Over the course of two years, Identity Malta presided over a sea change in heads of department who were either asked to be transferred or else were detailed to other roles.

Their replacements often came with a political pedigree.

Identity Malta’s establishment was one of Labour’s first legislative acts, taking under its wing the Individual Investor Programme, the land and public registries, the passport and civil registration offices, the identity management office, and the citizenship and expatriate affairs office.

But its executive chairman Joe Vella Bonnici’s management since his political appointment in 2013 may have produced some collateral damage, namely with career civil servants moving out from under Identity Malta’s employ.

The director-general of the public registry, Dr Stephanie Pappalardo, was after July 2014 detailed to other duties in the ministry of home affairs.

Ermelinda Zahra, director of the public registry, was boarded out in 2014, while Dr Keith German, director and land registrar at the Lands and Public Registry asked for a transfer since his his contract expired in September 2014 and was informed in December that he would not be reappointed.

MaltaToday is reliably informed that the person replacing German resigned after a few months and that the Land Registry is still without a Land Registrar.

Under Identity Malta, the public and land registries were then transferred under the stewardship of Joseph Vassallo as Chief Officer Operations.

The passport office, whose director in 2014 was Gaetano Vella, is today run by Amanda Mifsud, who is director of passport and civil registration. She was appointed on a person-of-trust basis by the Labour administration. She is also the partner of family minister Michael Farrugia.

The department of citizenship and expatriate affairs – formerly within the ministry for foreign affairs – was run by Dr Mariella Grech as director and Mark Sultana as assistant director. The department is now run by a ‘professional officer’, Dr Charlene Zammit – the Labour Party’s mayor for Mqabba.

And falling under Identity Malta as a manager for residence affairs, is Ryan Spagnol, formerly a student campaigner for social democrat university group Pulse.

The government on Tuesday denied claims by the Opposition that three siblings of Vella Bonnici – a former Labour Party candidate – has also been employed at Identity Malta.

He is under pressure over a police investigation into allegations that thousands of visas and residence permits were issued fraudulently from the agency. Three low-level employees have been questioned by the police so far, after a raid was conducted at Identity Malta offices at the Evans Building.

The government claims the racket identified by police at Identity Malta – discovered following police investigations to accountant Joe Sammut was charged with registering hundreds of false trading companies in order to obtain residency permits for Libyan nationals – has been ongoing since 2011.

Since 2012, residence permits to Libyan nationals rose by over 440% in 2014, when 14,000 permits were issued.