Lm3,500 compensation for injustice

The Tribunal for the Investigation of Injustices yesterday recommended that Edmund Vella be awarded Lm3,500 by way of compensation.

Vella filed an application to the tribunal claiming he had sustained an injustice in 1991 when he had not been appointed to the post of university registrar.

He said he had joined the university in 1964 as a clerk and had subsequently occupied many executive posts at the university and between 1987 and 1989 had worked as finance officer and administrator at the Foundation for International Studies.

In August 1991 there was a vacancy for the post of university registrar. Vella had applied for the post as at the time he had worked as administrative officer within the registrar's office for more than two years.

However, the university rector had appointed another person to this post even though the successful applicant had fewer qualifications and less experience than Vella.

He therefore requested the tribunal, presided over by Mr Justice Lino Farrugia Sacco, to provide him with a remedy.

University rector Roger Ellul Micallef pleaded that no injustice had taken place but that the university had followed its normal practices in selecting the candidate for the post of registrar.

After hearing the evidence produced the tribunal noted that the university had submitted that it had based its choice of candidate upon references. However, no proof of this was forthcoming before the tribunal, so the university's pleas were dismissed.

The tribunal therefore upheld Vella's claim and recommended that he be awarded Lm3,500 in compensation.