New conflict in Parliament’s Health Committee

After two years of leaving the important Parliamentary Health Committee dormant, as its former Chairman, Parliamentary Secretary Malcolm Agius Galea, didn’t find the time to convene a single meeting, his replacement, Labour MP Romilda Zarb, is also facing a similar problem.

The new Health Committee Chairperson, former Mosta Labour mayor Romilda Zarb, is on the payroll of the Health Ministry, the same entity she is supposed to scrutinise through the Chairmanship of the parliamentary body.

In 2022, shortly before becoming a Labour backbencher, Zarb was recruited as a Senior Regulatory Pharmacist at the Malta Medicines Authority (MMA) – one of the health regulators. She was given the post by the 80-year-old Chairman of the Authority, Professor Anthony Serracino Inglott, who is still occupying the post.

Among her daily duties, Zarb is responsible for regulating medical devices used in government hospitals and the industry at large.

This puts her in an awkward position, as through her new parliamentary duties, for which she is paid €10,000 a year extra, she is supposed to scrutinise the work of the entity she works for.

Contacted by The Shift over this glaring conflict of interest, Zarb did not know how to answer and asked for questions to be sent in writing.

The Shift received no response to its emailed questions, despite reminders.

Zarb is not the only MP on the government’s payroll who is sitting on the Health Committee.

PN MP Ian Vassallo is also a government employee, working as a podiatrist in both the government and private sectors.

The main difference is that Vassallo is not the Chairman of the committee and does not control the Health Committee’s agenda. Still, some subjects may put him in a conflicting situation.

The Health Committee convened its first meeting after a two-year lapse last week, with Zarb stating that she would like to discuss important health issues, including mental health.

None of the MPs sitting on the committee singled out her apparent conflict of interest as Chair of the Parliamentary committee.

Last week, The Shift revealed that the Health Committee had been left dormant for two years, with the previous meeting having taken place two years ago, before Malcolm Agius Galea became a parliamentary secretary.

He explained that he did not convene any meetings as he felt that through his new post as Parliamentary Secretary in the Health Ministry, he had an apparent conflict of interest.

Still, despite signalling this impasse to the Prime Minister, it took two years for the Labour Parliamentary Group to find a replacement.

As a Parliamentary secretary, Malcolm Agius Galea did not get the €10,000 remuneration related to this post, as members of the executive are not paid their honorarium as MPs.

Until 2023, Zarb was also a member of the board of directors of Emy’s Enterprises Ltd – a family business specialising in healthy food supplies.

She resigned in 2023 and was replaced by her father, Emmanuel Zarb.