Changes to policy consultant appointments after Clayton Bartolo scandal

Policy consultants hired on a trust basis will be remunerated at no higher than scale three in the public service, and any expertise allowances will have to be duly justified and approved by the Office of the Prime Minister, after changes to a public service handbook on recruiting persons of trust.

The Office of the Principal Permanent Secretary, in line with the political commitment made by Prime Minister Robert Abela, has revised the criteria governing the appointments of, among others, Policy Consultants as trusted persons.

This was done through clarifications made to Section 7 of the Manual for Resourcing Policies & Procedures.

The changes were made after former tourism minister Clayton Bartolo breached ethics when hiring his girlfriend as a policy consultant on a trust basis in his ministry, when she had been working as a receptionist in the same ministry.

After investigating the case, the Commissioner for Standards in Public Life said the Manual for Resourcing Policies & Procedures lacked the proper safeguards against abuse when engaging persons of trust. 

The manual contained no criteria on the choice of policy consultants and how they should be renumerated. The Standards Commissioner said this creates a problem because there is no basis on which permanent secretaries can object to the appointment of policy consultants. The manual does not even contain an obligation to submit a CV when permanent secretaries file a formal request for engagement of policy consultants.

Nonetheless, this obligation coupled with the need to obtain security clearance, are required for the recruitment of members of a minister’s secretariat.