Fearne back on public service payroll, no suspension despite charges

Former deputy prime minister Chris Fearne, who resigned from cabinet in May following criminal charges related to the hospitals scandal, is back on the public payroll working as a full-time civil servant at the health department.

The Shift can reveal that just a few weeks after the former health minister resigned from cabinet, Fearne, on his request, was given a new job at the Superintendence of Public Health, with its offices based in the decaying St Luke’s Hospital.

Sources told The Shift that Fearne had been attending work at an office at St Luke’s for several weeks. His boss was Charmaine Gauci, the superintendent for public health, who was appointed when Fearne was health minister.

“He spends some time here at a St Luke’s office, but no one exactly knows what his role is,” members of the medical profession told The Shift.

When contacted, Fearne confirmed that he had become a civil servant again but did not say what his role was. He also confirmed that he had asked for this job.

“Following the start of court proceedings, I resigned as deputy prime minister and minister and withdrew my nomination for EU Commissioner. Instead of accepting the Government Termination and Transition benefits (which would have amounted over three years to around €130,000), after consultation with the Health Department Permanent Secretary and the Principal Permanent Secretary, I opted to resume my pre-2014 employment.”

Yet Fearne would not be entitled to receive the Termination and Transitional benefits applied to former ministers. He remains a sitting Labour backbencher and could not receive the benefits even if he worked in the private sector.

Terminal and transitional benefits are for cabinet members who lose their positions through resignation, sacking, or a change in government. The benefits stop once you’re employed again, even in the private sector.

When asked why he had not been suspended from his civil service job, as rules dictate when individuals face criminal charges, he said, “Suspension is not mandatory and certainly not automatic but is discretionary.”

The Public Service Management Code (PSMC) dictates that public servants facing criminal charges are immediately suspended on half pay until their procedures are exhausted.

Recently, in an apparent attempt to relax disciplinary measures, Robert Abela secretly amended the rules so that those suspended could take 80% of their pay while suspended instead of 50%.

Abela also said that only public servants with serious charges are suspended.

Fearne faces charges of fraud, misappropriation of public funds, and fraudulent gain by abusing his position, among the most severe charges a civil servant can face.

However, while Fearne was reintegrated into the civil service instead of being suspended, Prime Minister Robert Abela did not use the same yardstick with Central Bank Governor and former minister Edward Scicluna.

Faced with the exact same accusations as Fearne, Abela ordered Scicluna to suspend himself from his public role.

Abela justified his position, which Scicluna initially resisted, by stating that the former minister should follow the civil servant rules “just like others.” Now, it appears that Abela is using a different approach with Fearne.