Rita Schembri’s role ‘seriously jeopardised’ – what next?

Rita Schembri is no stranger to controversy. As head of the IAID, a top unit in the Office of the Prime Minister that investigated the misappropriation of EU funds and the tuna-farming industry, and assisted OLAF in the Dalligate investigation, Schembri's position has been seriously compromised.

She already attracted unwarranted attention when a court found that she had illegally sub-let a restaurant owned by Joseph Borg. Borg sued her successfully in court so that she pays him monies owed for the sub-lease. But she then filed a criminal complaint against him after he threatened to report her to OLAF unless she "redeems" herself by settling outstanding payments to her own sub-lessees. The matter tumbled into court, revealing further details about Schembri's underhanded business deals.

Only two weeks ago she stepped down from OLAF's supervisory committee. Having assisted OLAF in its investigation of John Dalli she claimed no cognisance of the review that the supervisory committee had to carry out on the OLAF investigation.

She held a very sensitive position inside the OPM, but when MaltaToday revealed the emails showing that she had breached the public service's code of ethics, the then head of the civil service, Godwin Grima, decided against forwarding the matter to the Public Service Commission.

As chairman of the board that supervises the IAIB he recommended that it should be the National Audit Office that investigates the allegations by MaltaToday. But the NAO, which has an audit function, declared that such a disciplinary task should have been assigned to "more competent and experienced" authorities.

Indeed, the NAO notes that the Auditor General "has no executive powers and even in such instances can only forward recommendations."

It was only after it objected and then was instructed by the finance ministry that the NAO set up an ad-hoc three-person board of inquiry, carrying out an expeditious but thorough data collection and series of interviews.

The result of the report is that Schembri's placement within senior management has been seriously jeopardised, leading the NAO to recommend that public officers must terminate any extra-official work before taking up certain sensitive posts.

The NAO also says that top civil servants must file declarations of their assets, with fresh copies filed annually or before significant changes, and keep audit trails of employee attendance and visitors to government offices.

Since it does not have any executive powers, it will be up to the new head of the civil service, Mario Cutajar, to decide whether any action should be taken with respect to Rita Schembri.