Labour government employs over 450 on ‘trust’ basis

Over 450 people are employed in positions of trust with government ministries, parliamentary secretariats and government entities, according to information released in various Freedom of Information requests by the Malta Independent.

The data was released by 13 of the government’s 15 ministries, with details from the tourism and EU affairs ministries still pending.

At 112, the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) had the largest complement of people in positions of trust.  A total of 50 were hired without a call for applications under the OPM’s International Conferences 2015 Unit, tasked with organising last month’s Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting and the Valletta Summit on Migration. 

Phyllis Muscat, head of the CHOGM task force, was said to have been on the highest government salary scale, Scale 1.

Former One News journalist Glenn Bedingfield, part of the prime minister’s entourage, was appointed on a trust basis to handle the coordination of PQs.

Two estate keepers at Girgenti Palace and Villa Francia were employed on a trust basis for housekeeping duties. Another 11 trust positions were placed at the government customer care unit.

The Parliamentary Secretary for Planning Michael Falzon employed the maximum 11 complement for trust positions.

Drivers for former ministers Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici and former Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi are also listed in the overall list, as is Gonzi’s former p.a., who now coordinates administrative functions in the OPM.

All the other ministries listed only current positions of trust but refused to include past positions of trust, and the names of people in positions of trust on Scale 6 salaries and under were not provided, or full financial packages not divulged.

Ombudsman Judge Joseph Said Pullicino has referred to the issue of positions of trust in his Ombudsplan 2015, where he complained that “the demarcation line between recruitment in the civil service and ministries is becoming more blurred. Successive governments are adopting a policy of directly engaging people in departments and authorities. These appointments are not limited to the highest levels of public administration.”