‘Facts are facts’ – DOI insists Shanghai consul was never sacked from public service

Malta’s consul in Shanghai, who was arraigned on money laundering charges last week, was never fired from the public service, the Department of Information has insisted.

It was replying to a press release published by the Chamber of Commerce earlier this week, in which it urged the Head of the Civil Service to lead by example and take the moral high ground.

The consul, Aldo Cutajar, is the brother of Principal Permanent Secretary Mario Cutajar.

In a right of reply, the DOI said: Facts are facts: the brother of the Principal Permanent Secretary was never dismissed from government service and consequently he was never reinstated, less so even after 2013.

One cannot rest on suppositions but on verity namely:

1) The public officer in question joined the public service for the first time in 1989;

2) In 2004 he appeared before the courts on charges of misappropriation of funds, among others;

3) On 2 February 2005, he admitted the charges in his regard and was given a two-year sentence, suspended for four years, with a perpetual interdiction;

4) On 22 April 2005, the Magistrate Jacquiline Padovani Grima decided to remove the perpetual interdiction which it itself had given on 2 February 2005;

5) The Public Service Commission appointed by a Nationalist administration investigated the case in accordance with the regulations of the public service and on 16 June 2005 recommended that the interdiction imposed in his regard be removed as per the Court’s decision. The Commission stated that the person in question should lose his minimum wage throughout the suspension and be handed down a warning;

6) Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi agreed with this recommendation and endorsed it on 1 July 2005;

7) Subsequently, the person in question worked in a number of departments within various ministries;

8) This means that it is not true that the person involved was at any point fired from government service. As such, it is also not true that he was “reinstated” with the government, less so that he was reinstated with the government after 2013;

9) On 17 August 2016, that is, 11 years after the Court of Magistrates had removed the perpetual interdiction, he was sent by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, at which he worked at the time, to the Maltese embassy in Beijing. This took place after the respective ministry asked for and was given all the necessary clearances by the Security Services;

10) On 1 March 2018, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs dispatched the person to the Maltese Consulate in Shanghai. This post was terminated on 7 September 2019. The Principal Permanent Secretary had no connection whatsoever with any of the above-mentioned circumstances.

Everyone agrees that the ethics mentioned by The Malta Chamber are an obligation not only for public officers, but for all and sundry.

Ethics equates to facts.