MCST chairman Pullicino Orlando’s absence forces PAC suspension

A Public Accounts Committee meeting was suspended, after Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando – executive chairperson of the Malta Council for Science and Technology – failed to turn up for the grilling of his own council’s public accounts.

A National Audit Office investigation on public accounts in 2014 found serious shortcomings in the government’s science agency – including failure to keep attendance records of its employees and irregularities in fuel allowances. 

Opposition MP George Pullicino argued that the PAC meeting was originally supposed to be held on Monday but was postponed by a day because Pullicino Orlando had been abroad.

However, the former Nationalist MP failed to turn up, and MCST official Mario Borg was sent in his place.

Justice minister Owen Bonnici suggested that the Opposition MPs air the questions they had originally intended to ask Pullicino Orlando to Borg instead, but Pullicino and PAC chairperson Tonio Fenech refused.

“I want to air my questions specifically to the executive chairman, and the committee should have been advised from beforehand that he wasn’t going to be present,” he said, before calling for the meeting to be suspended.

In its report, the NAO had warned that an unnamed “high-ranking officer” at the MCST was entitled to 150 litres of free fuel per month, but was being paid in monthly €2,484 cash allowances instead.

Besides the fuel entitlement, this person’s financial package also included an annual car allowance of €4,193, which the NAO warned went against general government practices.

“The award of a car allowance is a comprehensive compensation for waiving the entitlement of a fully expensed car, which also comprises the consumption of fuel, and thus any further related allowance is precluded as it is considered as constituting a double payment of the same benefit,” the NAO said.

It also criticised the MCST for failing to keep attendance records of its employees, and for failing to provide evidence to substantiate salary decisions or to justify payments to employees.

It added that the total compensation for overtime worked in 2014 amounted to €20,157, out of which the vast majority -€16,084 – was paid to only five officials.

‘Majority of ministry’s public procurements went against regulations’

Earlier, the director general of operations within the Ministry of Education and Employment insisted that procurement irregularities highlighted by the NAO are being addressed.

The NAO had said that the “majority of procurements were not in line with public procurement regulations”.

“More people have been hired to work in the ministry’s procurement unit since then and we developed an internal audit mechanism,” Frank Fabri said. “The ministry recently released media-related tenders, which means that we are managing to regularise ourselves.”

“Work in the ministry has become more meticulous, and everybody is now more conscious on how to act on procurement affairs.”

As an example, he said that the ministry used to purchase all flight tickets from the same agency, but has now cast its net wider so as to obtain the best possible prices.

“Just as we have changed our procedure with regards the procurement of flight tickets, we have done similarly with regards other sectors, and have adopted a multi-faceted approach to procurement,” he said.

In a statement, the MCST said Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando was not asked to attend for this particular session.

"The invitation was sent to the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry for Education and Employment,  Joe Caruana, and Mario Borg, who is the Chief Administrative Officer at the Council, to provide him with all the support necessary," it read.

"Borg was chosen since he was the official in charge of liaising with the NAO during their work related to the MCST audit. Dr Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando will be looking forward to giving any input required during the forthcoming meeting, since the Opposition members have indicated that they would prefer to address their questions to him."