Gharb mayor on half pay for 11 years while suspended

David Apap, the Mayor of Gozo’s small village of Gharb, has been receiving half his pay from the Malta Tourism Authority (MTA) for the past 11 years, even though he has never set foot in his office since 2014.

The Mayor, one of the longest serving in Gozo, was suspended from his job as a Tourism Zone Officer at the MTA in 2014, following his arraignment in court over several criminal charges, including usury, which allegedly involved hundreds of thousands of euro.

Sources at the MTA confirmed to The Shift that for the past 11 years, since his suspension due to an ongoing criminal case, Apap has been receiving half his pay every month and is still on the government payroll.

According to public sector rules, those officers facing criminal charges in court are immediately suspended from work until their case is decided. In the eventuality that they are found not guilty, the same public officers would be reinstated and paid back all their withheld salaries.

Recently, Prime Minister Robert Abela modified these rules, allowing senior public servants to decide who should be suspended.

A notable case involved Kurt Buhagiar, who was accused of the involuntary manslaughter of Jean Paul Sofia. Despite the ongoing legal proceedings, Buhagiar was reinstated at the Lands Authority on the instructions of the Prime Minister and Minister Owen Bonnici.

In contrast, the Mayor of Gharb has been left suspended for 11 years on half pay, with his case continuing to drag on in Court. The serious accusations against Apap do not seem to negatively impact his reputation, especially among his Gozitan voters.

Shortly after he was arraigned, Apap was forced to resign from the Nationalist Party (PN) and ceased acting as a PN Mayor. However, he continued as an independent candidate and has been successfully elected in every local election since then.

Last year, Apap found himself in another controversy when he leased the local football ground to a rival team against the wishes of his locality’s football club and without providing any explanation.

After the Shift exposed this ‘secret’ deal with Victoria Hotspurs, it was scrapped.