Dublin meeting

F.O.I. administration manager John B. Scicluna represented Malta's employers at the 74th Administrative Board meeting of the Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, held in Dublin on April 1.

Also participating from Malta were Anthony Micallef Debono, representing the unions, and Dr Noel Vella representing the Government of Malta.

The agenda contained a number of normal administrative issues, such as the adoption of the annual report for 2004, and consideration of the annual internal audit report for 2004, and of the draft estimate of revenue and expenditure for 2006.

It also contained important topics, such as the recruitment of director and governance of the foundation. Under governance the board discussed a proposal to reduce the number of working languages to three - English, French and German - to cut rising translation and interpretation costs.

Most of the discussions focused on the recruitment of the new director. Following the sudden passing away of the former director in the spring of 2003, the board of the foundation had set in motion the complex procedure for the appointment of a new director.

The board of the foundation had drawn up a short list in April 2004 and had sent it to the Commission to select the new director. However, after a few months the Commission had advised the board that none of the candidates had been found suitable for the post and the board was constrained to restart the whole selection process.

The 11-person selection committee received more than 200 applications that were finally brought down to a small shortlist of persons. Following a long discussion on the subject the board finally endorsed the recommendation of the selection committee and decided to forward the shortlist to the Commission.