Former Enemalta and Air Malta chairman Charles Mangion – on whose watch the two state companies were implicated in multi-million-euro scandals, corruption and failures – has been given a new government appointment.
This time he has been placed by Tourism Minister Clayton Bartolo as the chairman of ITS New Campus Ltd – a state company responsible for the long-promised €60 million new ITS campus at Smart City.
Announced in the Government Gazette last week, the former Labour minister will be accompanied in his new deployment by a board inundated with directors hailing from the minister’s district.
Former Nationalist Party International Secretary John Bonello, who moved over to the Labour Party, was made company secretary. He was recently also appointed as the government’s representative on the board of Lombard Bank, among other appointments.
Promised in 2015, works on the new ITS campus are still to see the light of day.
While millions of euros in EU funding originally made available for the project was cut a few weeks ago and diverted to other projects, Bartolo recently told Parliament that the new campus is still on the cards and is now expected to be ready by 2026.
In the meantime, millions have already been spent on plans, with architect Colin Zammit, for example, being given a €700,000 direct order to produce the campus’ new designs.
Charles Mangion, who had failed to make it to Parliament in 2013 and was ousted by his nephew, now Minister Silvio Schembri, was made Enemalta chairman by disgraced former minister Konrad Mizzi.
On his watch, Enemalta was partially sold to the Chinese government while the procurement of the new gas-fired power station and the scandalous Montenegro wind farm project took place.
In 2017, Mizzi also made Mangion the chairman of Air Malta – once again expanding its routes and reversing measures implemented only a few years earlier by then-minister Edward Zammit Lewis – and the national airline continued to nosedive.
In 2018, after some three years of failing to publish its accounts, Mizzi and Mangion announced a €1.2 million profit. This later resulted to be false and the product of a book cooking exercise, confirmed later by Finance Minister Clyde Caruana.
The national airline is now expected to wind down soon after the end of summer.
X’jaf dar-raġel biex qed iżommuh kuntent?
Easybet sa tiftah l-imhatri ghall l-aktar hanzir smin
Jeez some people never have enough.
Personally, I have nothing against Charles Mangion, but I do not believe that he is fit enough to take top positions requiring great deal of management skills and experience.
Opportunisti, hallelin u faccola.addio l-partit tal-haddiema. Sar il’muvument tal- kriminali.
SPOT ON
ITS , another shining sun to reap the hay from. So instead of getting hanged and quartered , metaphorically speaking , for bringing this disaster of continuous black outs, he is given a cushy job at ITS , where he gets a full board 5 star treatment.Breakfast , Dinner , High Tea , Supper , and a lift home. Ahsillu il Platti , GAHAN.
Specialist in failure paid for by the public
Amazing, the more one is a failure at their job, the more they are promoted by this disgusting government.
Impeccable track record!. They will gorge themselves till they die!
I m an ex ITS student , after they got rid of international lecturers and opened ITS to the masses , this institution went down the drain. As with tourism, it s not quantity but quality that should be sought ! Then you visit restaurants and hospitality establishment and the standards are so poor. Alas island still thinks it can attract 5* tourism…. dream on !
Gluttonous till the end, all of them!
A mentally challenged oxygen thief who is the ideal gahan candidate for a position in Dumb Village, just like the rest of them.
Proposal lil Gvern:-
Kien hemm zmien meta fuq kemmuna kienu jrabbu l-hniezer. Ghalfejn ma jergax isir l-istess u titfghu lil dawn il-hniezer kolllha ( jekk tesahhom) hemmhekk?
Meritikrazija fl-aqwa taghha !!! fejn hi Ramona Frendo ??
PL is dead it’s the capitalist party now.
when will all these appointments not based on merit, experience, qualifications, skills stop? appointing persons solely based on political colour especially to important institutions, entities is unacceptable and a danger. but will it ever stop? i think not as both parties adopt the same approach to fulfill their promises to their constituents to get their vote. Albeit this does not happen solely in Malta I think that our political system needs a complete re-vamp.