The government has appointed the president of the General Workers Union to serve as one of the directors representing its shareholding in a state investment company, Malita Investments.

62-year old Victor Carachi, president of Malta’s largest union, was appointed to the board last May, in the middle of the pandemic. Carachi is paid some €10,000 a year as fees for representing the government on the board. 

The company, formed in 2012, serves as the government’s special purpose vehicle to administer public assets of national importance, such as the new parliament building, a social housing project, and rents due from the use of public land by the Malta International Airport and the Valletta Cruise Terminal.

Carachi’s nomination was made together with two other Labour party acquaintances – former MEP Marlene Mizzi and Tania Brown, a senior manager at Identity Malta and, up to recently, the chief of staff of former Finance Minister Edward Scicluna.  

The board is chaired by Kenneth Farrugia, a chief officer at Bank of Valletta, and includes Paul Mercieca, the current chairman of Allied Newspapers, publishers of The Times of Malta, who was paid €15,000 from the government company in 2020 in director’s fees.

Victor Carachi has been the president of the General Workers Union since 2008. Apart from his union duties, Carachi also serves on the boards of various commercial companies owned by the General Workers Union. These include Paola Estates Ltd, which leases out property to Transport Malta, and the Foundation for the Community Workers Scheme, which manages a multi-million scheme for the long term unemployed on behalf of the government.

In 2018, Carachi was also given a consultancy job by the government at MIMCOL, paid €12,500 a year. He refused to give any comments to the media when asked about the conflict of interest in serving the union and the government at the same time. It is not known whether his consultancy job with the government is still ongoing.

The government owns 80% of the shareholding of Malita Investments, while the rest of the shares are traded on the stock exchange.