Super CEO is not judged by his hours, tourism minister insists

The government is refusing to give details on how many hours ‘super CEO’ Pierre Fenech is dedicating to the administration of the Mediterranean Conference Centre.

Fenech simultaneously holds two CEO posts at two important government entities – the Mediterranean Conference Centre and the Institute of Tourism Studies. He was appointed to the posts by disgraced former tourism minister Konrad Mizzi.

Asked to state the average number of hours a week Fenech spends at his MCC post, Tourism Minister Clayton Bartolo, who is responsible for both the MCC and ITS, could not produce the information.

Instead, he told Opposition MP Rebekah Borg that Fenech’s performance was calculated on his achievements, not the number of hours he spent at work.

According to the minister, the MCC has registered several successes under Fenech’s administration. Yet he failed to give any details of these achievements.

Fenech hit the headlines again recently thanks to the WhatsApp chats between former Labour MP Rosianne Cutajar and businessman Yorgen Fenech published by Mark Camilleri.

Cutajar referred to a consultancy job Fenech had offered her at ITS and told Fenech that she would take another salary since all her colleagues also “were pigging out”.

Fenech never replied to The Shift’s questions about his offer to Cutajar and whether he had paid her for a phantom job as indicated through the publication of her contract.

Further investigations revealed that Fenech was on two lucrative contracts himself, one as the Institute of Tourism Studies CEO and another as the Mediterranean Conference Centre CEO – earning him more than €122,000 a year in salaries.

Minister Bartolo, now responsible for Fenech’s contracts, could not explain to parliament how and when the super CEO manages the two organisations simultaneously.

Bartolo, however, defended Fenech and insisted that he was up to the job(s).

Fenech’s wife, Romina, herself a close friend of Michelle Muscat, was also made director of the government company Mediterranean Offshore Bunkering in addition to her full-time job at the Housing Authority.