Konrad Mizzi’s aide given new contract at OHSA

Alex Cutajar was given another handpicked  government job in 2024, serving as an advisor to the CEO of the Occupational Health and Safety Authority (OHSA) to manage a national campaign on health and safety in construction sites.

According to his contract, seen by The Shift, Cutajar was paid thousands for the direct order. It is not known whether the campaign was eventually implemented. No competitive tender was issued for the job.

The OHSA was hiring a senior communications manager — normally the main brain behind media campaigns — at the same time, former One TV presenter and Labour propagandist Karl Stagno Navarra.

According to OHSA sources, Stagno Navarra rarely turned up for work, spending his government-paid time preparing for his daily political show on Labour TV instead.

Robert Abela called for the cancellation of Stagno Navarra’s program in the wake of Labour’s negative result in the June 2024 MEP elections. Stagno Navarra was also moved from the OHSA to the Plants Directorate of the Agriculture Ministry.

Alex Cutajar managed Konrad Mizzi’s public relations during the scandal plagued period of Mizzi’s tenure at the Energy, Health and Tourism Ministries, and was the disgraced former minister’s right hand man until 2020.

Following Mizzi’s resignation in 2019 and his sacking from the Labour Party, Finance Minister Clyde Caruana described Mizzi and Cutajar’s publicity about Air Malta’s profits as failing to represent reality. The national airline ceased operations in 2024 after being declared bankrupt.

In 2020, Cutajar was given a €30,000 contract by Projects Plus – another agency set up by Mizzi – to provide consultancy in “image and strategy”.

The agency is led by James Camenzuli, an engineer handpicked by Mizzi. Camenzuli managed several tainted contracts, including the multi-billion-dollar deal to privatise three public hospitals. He is currently facing criminal charges but kept his post at the government agency.

In 2021, Cutajar also announced that he had been appointed a partner in Temple Magazine, a publication founded by Josette Schembri Vella, wife of disgraced former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri. Both Keith and Josette Schembri are facing money laundering charges in court.