Permanent Secretaries will now have the additional responsibility of approving the engagement of their ministers’ advisers and consultants, even if these individuals are employed on a person-of-trust basis, according to a legal amendment.
This change comes after recommendations from the Standards Commissioner following abuses committed by Ministers Clayton Bartolo and Clint Camilleri in the hiring of Amanda Muscat.
In response, the Principal Permanent Secretary has introduced new rules to streamline these engagement processes.
However, rather than revising the criteria for ministers to hire consultants—often friends, party supporters, or political canvassers—the government shifted the responsibility to the Permanent Secretaries.
According to amendments to the manual governing the engagement of persons-of-trust, Tony Sultana, the Principal Permanent Secretary, with the approval of Prime Minister Robert Abela, has specified that Permanent Secretaries must now approve the engagement of advisers before the request is submitted to the Head of Secretariat at the Office of the Prime Minister.
The crucial amendment published by the OPM.
This change means that previously, Permanent Secretaries signed contracts for advisers only after receiving approval from Castille. Now, they must give their consent before sending the necessary requests to the Office of the Prime Minister.
In practice, this places the responsibility on the Permanent Secretaries if any issues arise, rather than on the Prime Minister or his Ministers.
“If a Minister chooses someone as his adviser and person-of-trust, he should assume responsibility for that person. It’s not fair for this responsibility to be passed onto us when we have no say in who a Minister engages,” one Permanent Secretary told The Shift, speaking on condition of anonymity.
He pointed out that, until now, Permanent Secretaries had no authority to object to the engagement of someone chosen by a Minister.
“Will we have the right to object now? Is it practical to keep saying ‘no’ to a Minister I have to work with daily? This is not right,” he insisted.
Other senior government officials have described the recent changes to the manual as a knee-jerk reaction to demonstrate that action is being taken. However, they asserted that, in practice, nothing has changed.
The new rules also introduce a requirement for justifying the expertise allowance given to advisers. Under the revised guidelines, Permanent Secretaries must justify a €20,000 expertise allowance for their Minister’s consultants. Once again, the criteria were not clearly defined, leaving ample room for interpretation.
Amanda Muscat’s consultancy contract, at the time the girlfriend of Minister Bartolo, included a €20,000 allowance—the highest possible—despite her lack of qualifications and experience, which the Standards Commissioner noted.
The Gozo Ministry’s Permanent Secretary, John Borg, signed the contract based on instructions from Michael Buhagiar, the Minister’s Chief of Staff. According to Buhagiar, Muscat’s engagement was his decision, even though he lacked any executive power within the public sector for such a move.
Simply put, Permanent Secretaries are now Paraventu Secretaries for the Minister’s abuse. Next step is the proposed change to the Criminal Code to protect these government officials from any criminal action for authorising and carrying out the minister’s abusive decisions.
This is really devious. Where is the Opposition?
Governing a small Island like Malta should be fairly easy, right? Half a million people, less than live in the city of Catania, governed by one mayor. In Malta we need about 30 Ministers, each with an army of ‘advisers’ – so called Persons of Trust – with no particular skill set other than beeing party loyalists. Switzerland covers 8 million people with 7 ministers and it works fine, just to put that number in context. Malta has found ways to create ‘jobs’ for the pigs in power and their friends pigging out by overinflating their administration with useless ministries, ministers and their clueless ‘advisers’. Monty Python’s sketch ‘Ministry of Silly Walks’ comes to mind. Funny stuff if it wasn’t drop dead serious.
There were, in the past, some Permanent Secretaries who have stood up to their Ministers and said a blunt but reasoned ‘NO’ to them was fairly known in Civil Service circles.
But, have there been any in the past 12 or so years? One still has to hear about such instances!