Projects Malta chief William Wait lands another top public job

William Wait, the executive chairperson of Projects Malta, has been handed a new position as non-executive chairman of Malta Enterprise.

Since Labour’s election to government in 2013, Wait has been handed numerous high-ranking roles in the public sector. Since 2013, he has served as deputy chairman of Malta Enterprise, the government’s investment arm. He is also currently executive chairperson of Projects Malta, the government agency in charge of public-private partnerships, and deputy chairperson of ARMS, the agency in charge of utilities.

He was previously executive chairperson and later merely chairperson of the Water Services Corporation – a role he will now relinquish to Mario Zammit, managing director of Uniplast Ltd.

Last year, then energy minister Konrad Mizzi refused to provide an exact figure on the salary of Wait as executive chairman of the WSC. In response to questions from the Opposition benches, he simply said that Wait’s duties encompass those of the WSC’s previous CEO and chairman and that his salary was “reflective” of such duties. Last month, shadow energy minister Marthese Portelli noted that Wait had been quietly demoted to chairperson, while landing another top job as executive chairman at Projects Malta.

“This shows that the position of WSC executive chairperson was set up simply to give [Wait] a cushy job,” she said.

In the past, Wait served as director and deputy CEO of Toly Group, an international cosmetics manufacturing group. In 2008, he was elected to the Federation of Industry’s Council and subsequently elected to the Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry.