Government hires new consultant on same day it collapses
Government hires new consultant for €6,000 without call for applications on same day that it loses majority in parliament.
On the very same day that the Government collapsed when Nationalist MP Franco Debono voted against the budget, the Ministry of Resources and Rural Affairs hired a new consultant without having first issued a public call.
Weekly newspaper Illum reports that the consultant, Mario Pandolfino, who is retied, will be given a pay packet amounting to €6,000 for 36 weeks of work which he supposedly should deliver.
According to the Ministry, Pandolfino will be assisting in the restoration of the Ministry's Building Regulations office thanks to his experience.
According to the report, the Ministry is defending the move by insisting that Pandolfino's employment "is not a hiring" but a "contract for service", and is insisting that this did not require a call for applications.
The ministry also confirmed that the contract came into force on 10 December, the same day that Government lost its majority in parliament.
Read the full story on the Sunday issue of Illum.