Mario Cutajar has no problem with 700 individuals employed on a trust basis
● Certain roles reflect the competitive job market
Principal Permanent Secretary Mario Cutajar has ‘no problem’ with the roughly 700 individuals employed as persons of trust or in positions of trust. These individuals include the security guard at Addolorata cemetery, and the estate managers and keepers at Villa Francia and Girgenti, who are employed under such a pretence. The permanent secretary insists that such a system has to be used to find employees in a highly competitive job market.
The figure, obtained through a number of Freedom of Information requests by The Malta Independent on Sunday, is 683. The replies did not include members of government boards as such appointments are already publicly available.
While a number of posts are naturally expected to be filled by persons of trust, such as ministerial chiefs of staff and communications coordinators, others raise serious questions about a system that has been used to employ everyone from customer care officers to dog handlers, cleaners, and maintenance officers.
The information also includes an estate manager on a scale 9 salary (maximum of €23,200) as a
position of trust, whose job it is to maintain Villa Francia and Girgenti Palace, and to coordinate all necessary work to ensure that the residences are “kept at the highest level of maintenance.” In addition, there are two estate keepers on salary scale 9 as persons of trust for Villa Francia and Girgenti Palace, tasked with the upkeep and organisation of household belongings, cleaning on a daily and weekly basis, the setting up of and serving social activities, working as kitchen help etc.”
The Malta Independent asked Cutajar whether he felt this number was excessive and how such roles can be considered a person or position of trust.
“They do not annoy me for the simple reason that the second the minister leaves the position, the person will leave with them. These individuals are not employed by the public service, they are political appointees and in 2013 we established clear distinctions between the two,” he said, while also noting that the previous PN administrations had recorded similar numbers of such positions.
Cutajar went on to praise reforms made in the roles of permanent secretaries, insisting that they had been given greater authority and trust to perform their duties.
He further explained that “the Public Service Commission used to be appointed by the government with the advice of the leader of the Opposition. Now the number of members has been halved and include individuals from both sides of the House. These are further supported by the Ombudsman, the NAO, and the Whistleblower Act.”
Pressed further as to how roles such as the security guard at Addolorata cemetery could be justified, Cutajar said economic improvement had resulted in a competitive job market, meaning that sometimes individuals were either employed urgently or transferred from departments to different roles. He said this was something that had always happened.
“Most likely they couldn’t find anyone. If you can, find us a van driver as well, as we can’t finding any,” he said.
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat had also defended the government’s decision to employ such a significant number of individuals in these positions, insisting that in certain roles “you need to have faith in the person,” adding that “he or she is not an employee for life; it could go on for three , five, eight years... till the minister leaves.”
In the Ombudsplan 18, Ombudsman Anthony Mifsud raised concerns about the “irregular” employment of persons of trust and positions of trust. With regard to the former, he highlighted the “unacceptable secrecy” of employment, pointing towards the Constitution, which stipulates that recruitment is to be a competitive, open, and transparent process.
“The fact that subsequent administrations have used this system to employ persons of trust, and with no way to remedy the situation, it is the opinion of the Office of the Ombudsman that this situation is irregular,” the report read.
The prime minister said he disagreed with this assessment, without providing any elaboration.
Malta places third in terms of perception of quality of public services
The European Quality of Life Survey, which was published in January 2018, placed Malta third in terms of the perception of the quality of public services, receiving an overall rating of 7.1, Principal Permanent Secretary Mario Cutajar announced at a press conference at Castille.
Cutajar, who was giving an overview of public services in the five years of the PL administration, noted that Malta ranked highly in a number of areas, with childcare placing first, education second, social housing third, health care fourth, and pensions seventh.
Cutajar emphasised the customer-centric approach adopted in the public sector, with the government seeking to bring public services closer to the community.
This, he explained, had allowed public services to adapt to the needs of the modern user.
He said that eleven out of twelve key performance indicator (KPI) targets had been reached in 2017, with 20 KPIs currently examining potential improvements.
Cutajar also praised a number of other key figures, namely the five servizz.gov centres, which provide 250 services; the 800 services available online; and the launch of 21 different mobile applications.