Permanent Secretary rehired days after ‘retirement’ despite Auditor General’s criticism

The former permanent secretary of the Gozo Ministry, closely associated with the abuse of public procurement rules, according to the Auditor General, has been re-employed at the Gozo Ministry just a few days after supposedly retiring.

John Borg, who officially retired earlier this summer after 12 years as the top civil servant in Gozo, was reinstated on the Ministry’s payroll as a person of trust.

Additionally, Borg, outed by the National Audit Office (NAO) for the Ministry’s habitual abuse of direct orders on his watch, was also given a second job by Minister Clint Camilleri, appointing him to serve on the board of directors of the Gozo Regional Development Authority (GRDA) – a satellite organisation of the Gozo Ministry.

Borg already receives two state pensions, including a privileged one reserved for just former permanent secretaries.

Borg was assigned to work in the same office now occupied by his successor, Mario Borg, who was installed as a permanent secretary to try to clear the mess left by his predecessor.

The new Permanent Secretary confirmed, when asked by The Shift, that Borg was back at his old office just days after reaching pensionable age.

“John Borg will provide support (on a part-time basis) to the Ministry in matters concerning the Conference of Peripheral and Maritime Regions of Europe (CPMR), an organisation in which he has been active on behalf of the Ministry for the past 11 years.  The CPMR’s activity is significant in that it offers Gozo an international platform to advocate for its unique challenges,” the new Permanent Secretary said.

The CPMR is a small international organisation with no real stature on the global stage.

Sources described the former permanent secretary’s new contract as “a thank you gift by the Labour administration for the many times he looked the other way during the past 12 years to let his political masters do whatever they pleased”.

Describing the new permanent secretary as “a serious person”, the sources insisted that Mario Borg was not very enthusiastic about his predecessor’s presence at the Ministry but had to “obey orders”.

They said that although it’s still early days, many civil servants at the Ministry are confident that the new permanent secretary will start a new page.

The retired permanent secretary was one of the longest-serving at the Gozo Ministry, having survived three different Ministers – Anton Refalo, Justyne Caruana, and Clint Camilleri.

John Borg presided over an unprecedented list of shady public procurement and administrative decisions, including the scandalous recruitment of former minister Clayton Bartolo’s wife and a direct order of €700,000 to architect Godwin Agius, a close friend and collaborator of Minister Clint Camilleri.

In a critical report released by the National Audit Office (NAO) regarding the Ministry’s expenditures in 2022, Borg was harshly criticised for consistently approving direct orders to the same service providers and individuals.