Pullicino Orlando insists MCST addressing problems highlighted in audit

Several shortcomings highlighted in an audit report on the Malta Council of Science and Technology have since been addressed, the council’s executive chairperson Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando.

Pullicino Orlando was grilled by Opposition MPs on the Public Accounts Committee over an NAO investigation on the science council’s public accounts in 2014, that found serious shortcomings – including failure to keep attendance records of its employees.

However, the former Nationalist MP said that several of the problems were procedural ones that have since been addressed by hiring more staff and by updating the council’s IT system.

The NAO had criticized the MCST for failing to keep attendance records of all its employees, which Pullicino Orlando blamed on the inefficiency of the previous attendance verification system.

“We have since introduced a biometric system of attendance, to complement the IT system that was in place before,” he said. “Regardless of the NAO report, it wouldn’t have been wise not to update the attendance system, when the council is dealing with projects worth millions of euro.”

He said that the MCST had only employed around eight staff when he was first appointed executive chairman, but that it now employs around 100. He blamed the NAO’s criticism of the MCST’s tardiness in publishing its annual audit report on such staff shortages.

The NAO had noted that A financial controller was appointed on January 2014, with a pay package tied to salary scale 6, starting at €24,057. However, within two weeks, the financial package was revised upwards, resulting in an unauthorised increase of €6,709 for the year under review.

Pullicino Orlando retorted that he had the leeway to improve the controller’s extra additional allowance, and that he had increased it so as to bring it in line with that of the other directors.

“Upon my appointment as executive chairman, I was instantly advised to hire a financial controller, as the MCST was back then only monitored by an accounts clerk,” he said.

He denied approving direct salary increases, only for allowances, insisting that he used the same financial structures he had found upon his appointment to the role.

Repeatedly quizzed by Tonio Fenech on whether the amendment was approved by the finance ministry, the education ministry’s permanent secretary Joseph Caruana eventually decided to check and provide such details in a future sitting.

In its report, the NAO had warned that an unnamed “high-ranking officer” – which Pullicino Orlando admitted was himself - 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, his financial package also included an annual car allowance of €4,193, which the NAO warned went against general government practices.

When questioned though, Pullicino Orlando insisted that his allowance was “cut, copy, paste” from his predecessor’s.

He added that he had already enjoyed a fuel allowance and separate car allowance when he was simply chairman of MCST, and said that he is receiving a lower package back then than he currently is.