Malta Enterprise insists Wenzu Mintoff has conflict of interest
Malta Enterprise insisted today that it never objected to political activities held by its legal adviser Wenzu Mintoff, but it viewed his editorship of the Labour weekly KullHadd as a clear conflict of interest and a breach of its code of ethics.
Replying to a judicial protest filed by Dr Mintoff earlier this week, ME said that while Dr Mintoff was arguing that the code of ethics did not apply to him, on June 29 he confirmed he had read it and had not reserved his position.
The corporation said it never made the slightest objection to Dr Mintoff's political activities, but editorship of a newspaper was different and information which Dr Mintoff himself might know could end up in the newspaper which he edited.
Editorship of the newspaper made Dr Mintoff assume a position which undermined the position of impartiality which every employee of the public service had to adopt.
Furthermore, Dr Mintoff had not requested permission to serve as editor, and therefore violated his obligations as an employee.
Malta Enterprise said that comparisons made by Dr Mintoff with directors, employees and contractors of the corporation who might also be politically active did not hold water since none were editors of a newspaper and therefore did not have the difficulty faced by Dr Mintoff.
On the chairman of Malta Enterprise, ME said that he was appointed on the basis of confidence by the government, as was the practice in other corporations, but this did not mean that one should cast doubt on the way he carried out his duties, in accordance with the duties of the directors.
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Edward Mallia
Feb 11th 2010, 16:59
The following cse is not one of a conflict of interest but one of open breach of regulations.
The chairman of the MEPA board cannot be by regulation a MEPA employee. Yet the present chairman is also the MEPA Chief Executive Officer, i.e. an employee of MEPA. As Chairman,he comments on and rebuts items in the MEPA auditor's reports, which items deal with deeds for which he, as CEO, is ultimately responsible. Does that sound remotely like a conflict of interest?
On another MEPA point: the PL representative on the MEA board is the Hon. Roderick Galdes M.P., who is also an Opposition spokesman on the Enivronment AND an employee of MEPA. Any conflict there?
The above is not meant to argue that Dr. W. Mintoff does or does not have a conflict of interest. I would be inclined to think that he has. But, as some of your readers have pointed out, the flexibility of application of the rules by government departments and entities simply makes the whole process look disreputable.
Frank Portelli 2BFRANK
Feb 11th 2010, 16:43
@ Carmel Cilia
Correction
I have spoken out openly on the conflict of interest that exists with some Consultants at Mater Dei in relation to waiting lists.
The situation is much worse than you state !
Some Consultants employed at Mater Dei are actually Shareholders as well as Directors in Private Clinics !
That adds up to a number of conflicts of interest - add to that partnership established between consultants with university academics and you may start to appreciate what is really going on.
I remain
sincerely
a Voice in the Wilderness
Dr Frank Portelli
A Zahra
Feb 11th 2010, 16:36
The job of an editor is to dig out information and publish it in his newspaper. Should a foreign or local investor aproach ME, how can he speak in confidence with ME, when its legal services employee is a newspaper editor. The result will be that he will seek to invest elseware. If you cannot see this, then you have no idea how investors operate.
John Tabone
Feb 11th 2010, 16:32
arrogance at its best from Malta Enterprise chairman Mr. Alan Camilleri.
Carmel Cilia
Feb 11th 2010, 16:18
If in Malta we have a clear conflict of interest which is being detrimental to the maltese public is the fact that many of our specialist working at Mater Dei also undertake private practice. The result : a man needing medical treatment has more chance of having an operation at Mater Dei if he made private visits to the same specialist. Everybody knows this yet nobody has ever cried against such practices. The result: the very poor who cannot afford to pay these visits are nearly always the longest to wait on wating list for operations.
Our politicians, our archpriests our bishops our NGOs everybody knows about this corrupt system yet nobody ever mentions anything
Shame on you all.
Michael Sciberras
Feb 11th 2010, 15:56
Michael Sciberras
Is Dr.Wenzu Mintoff the only person in Malta who has conflict of interest?Is he the one and only?
Mario Pace
Feb 11th 2010, 15:47
This episode reminds me of the biblical saying : "We see the straw in the eyes of others and we do not see the beam in ours" (Matthew 7:3). I am referring to Minister Fenech's free excursion to London courtesy of two major local entrepreneurs, which was deemed by the PM himself as acceptable behaviour.
Joseph Borg
Feb 11th 2010, 15:18
Komplu duru mal-lewza, M.E. and all pn loyal servants!
Playing on words will never.. never, erase what the huge majority of all Mattese poor humans can sense,.percierve and understand! They may be poor, but never so stupid!
What a pity that OUR moneys are being wasted this way!!!!
Pity... real pity! All survivors trying to grasp to their posts & appointements... as long as they last! What as mockery of democracy!
Muscat. Pat
Feb 11th 2010, 15:09
Call a spade a spade!. Its more likely that Wenzu Mintoff might publish mal-administration examples, or Wenzu might publish other examples of ministers flying off with business people; of no conflict of interest there! He might also tell what goes in the under currents that Malta Enterprise-(paid for by our taxes) would not like to disclose. But the Power Station scandal was not discovered by Wenzu Mintoff no? And did Wenzu Mintoff discover after 10 years of studies that the black dust emanted form the Power Station is still a Sherlock Homes mystery?? I suppose all this is the epitome of PN European values. Some European values!
Ray Buhagiar
Feb 11th 2010, 14:45
If this is a conflict of interest, then doesn't it also apply to all those consultants who work at Mater Dei and Private Clinics/hospitals?