PL aide’s conviction has no effect under civil service rules

Updated with correction on 11 June to Engerer's former role at MEUSAC

Labour candidate Cyrus Engerer, who serves as a consultant to two government ministers, may be above the scrutiny of the Public Service Commission – the body regulating the civil service – despite a conviction by an Appeals Court earlier last month.

Under Article 16 of the PSC’s disciplinary procedures, when “public officers” are found guilty of a criminal charge, the Public Service Commission must make a recommendation to the Prime Minister as to whether “such misconduct has a direct or indirect relation to the duties of the officer concerned.”

It is unclear whether Engerer, who also chairs the LGBT consultative council, falls under the remit of the Public Service Commission.

Engerer was convicted to two years’ imprisonment, suspended for two years, after an Appeals Court overturned his acquittal last year, for the vilification of his former partner by sending out compromising ‘pornographic’ images of him to his employer.

Engerer instantly withdrew his candidature for the European Parliament. Prime Minister Joseph Muscat defended Engerer, dubbing him a “soldier of steel” for joining Labour back in 2011 when he was a Nationalist local councillor: it was also at this very moment that police charges were filed against Engerer over the complaint by his former partner.

While the Opposition has berated the retention of Engerer as chairman of the LGBT council, accusing him of having exploited homophobic prejudice against his ex-boyfriend, Engerer’s appointment as a person of trust excludes him from any disciplinary oversight from the Public Service Commission.

The Constitution does not define “public officers” those people employed outside of the civil service – such as the members of ministries’ private secretariats.

Indeed, the PSC itself remarked in 2013 in its annual report that although it was “justifiable” for ministers to appoint people on the basis of trust, the Constitution does not provide for such direct appointments.

While the Public Service Commission has told MaltaToday that it was legally precluded from confirming whether it will be examining Engerer’s conviction under Article 16, Engerer himself confirmed with MaltaToday that he is “not a public officer.”

But even Muscat’s declaration of support for Engerer make it unlikely that an independent assessment of his conviction and its effects on his role as a consultant to the civil liberties ministry and LGBT council chairman would take place.

Clearly, the ‘unconstitutionality’ of ministers’ persons of trust is a grey area that the Public Service Commission itself is aware of.

Back in December 2011, the PSC proposed amending the Constitution to cover the appointment of staff to ministers’ secretariats: “This instrument would provide for the engagement of such staff on the basis of trust… in conformity with the Constitution, without limiting the discretion of ministers in staffing their secretariats.”

A problematic aspect of this however is the fact that persons of trust, who have definite contracts with no entitlement to permanent employment, can also be transformed into public service posts “at the stroke of a pen”.

Engerer serves as a consultant to the equality ministry, and to the European affairs ministry. He was formerly an Information Executive between February and October 2010 at the Malta-EU Action Steering Committee (MEUSAC).