MALTA
Photo: Matthew Mirabelli
The head of Malta’s Public Service has rejected international concerns over the number of “persons of trust” on the public payroll, saying it is a “cultural matter for the country”.
Principal Permanent Secretary, Mario Cutajar (pictured) said employment on a person-of-trust basis was resorted to in cases where personal trust was “a significant element of the employment relationship”.
“Persons employed as drivers or gardeners have been among the persons of trust for a long time and this is not a development that has happened during these last years,” Mr Cutajar said.
The poorly defined term usually refers to people brought into the Public Service to do a specific job for a fixed period but who are not subject to the normal vetting procedures.
There are currently about 700 persons of trust on the public payroll.
That figure was highlighted as an issue of concern in an evaluation by the Venice Commission of Malta’s democratic infrastructure late last year.
In its report after a visit to the island, the Council of Europe’s advisory body on constitutional law said that any exception to procedures that provided for appointments on merits were a danger to the quality of the Public Service.
The Commission concluded that without a constitutional and real legal basis, the practice of indiscriminate trust-basis employment was illegal, even if it had a legitimate purpose.
It called for Malta to adopt a constitutional amendment together with a clear legal basis that strictly limited the appointments of persons of trust.
Mr Cutajar said this was “not compatible with the established thinking in Malta”.
He said the number of persons employed in such positions was “very small” in relation to those in ordinary employment with the Government, and the figure had not changed much in recent years.
Valetta, 6 March 2019
