After failure, former higher education chief secured €64,000 ministry contract

Rose Anne Cuschieri, who led the Malta Further and Higher Education Authority (MFHEA) with very little success, was awarded a government consultancy contract worth up to €64,000 a year just days after formally retiring from the public service.

The Shift had reported her engagement, but followed up with a Freedom of Information request on her contract. Signed on 1 October 2025, Cuschieri was appointed as a policy consultant to the education minister, tasked with supporting the principal of the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology (MCAST), Stephen Vella.

The agreement provides a basic remuneration of €46,000, supplemented by allowances, bringing the total cost to taxpayers to about €64,000 annually.

The appointment followed mounting pressure on the MFHEA after Malta failed to secure recognition by the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (EQAR), a setback that raised concerns at the EU level over standards in the country’s higher education system.

On Cuschieri’s watch,  the MFHEA applied to be accepted on the register, recognising high standards. The regulator’s application was botched twice because it failed to meet the required criteria.

MCAST sources insisted that it had not appointed any consultants and that the contract was imposed by the ministry and communicated via its permanent secretary, Matthew Vella.

Although Cuschieri formally retired from the MFHEA, she agreed to work full-time (40 hours per week) while simultaneously drawing a full government pension.

The case is the latest example of the widespread abuse of ‘person of trust’ contracts across government ministries and agencies.

Such appointments, which are exempt from standard recruitment procedures, have increasingly been used to place politically connected individuals in well-paid advisory roles, often following retirement from senior public posts.

Investigations by The Shift have shown that several senior officials close to the Labour administration have transitioned onto consultancy contracts shortly after retirement, in some cases increasing their overall income through a combination of pensions and allowances.

An example is Mario Cutajar, the former head of the public service. As soon as he ‘retired’, he was appointed chairman of Heritage Malta and also awarded contracts as a person of trust with Minister Anton Refalo and Parliamentary Secretary Glenn Bedingfield, resulting in a higher income than when he worked.

On the instructions of Prime Minister Robert Abela, government ministries and agencies have curtailed the disclosure of information about politically appointed consultants.

In parallel, rules governing consultancy contracts have been relaxed, allowing individuals to hold multiple government consultancies simultaneously – a practice that was previously prohibited.