The government deceived the public when it did not announce that the former chairman of Malta’s IT agency, Claudio Grech, was employed as an adviser with the agency a few months after resigning, Labour leader Joseph Muscat said yesterday.
I accepted on the condition that there would be no remuneration whatsoever for the job
“Today, I found out that former Mita chairman Claudio Grech, who had resigned, is now a consultant there. And poor thing, he is a benefactor,” Dr Muscat said in a sarcastic tone.
When contacted, Mr Grech accused Dr Muscat of “mud-slinging”.
He confirmed he had been working as an adviser with Mita since March after being asked to do so by IT Minister Austin Gatt, but stressed that he was not being paid or receiving any perks on his request.
A spokesman for the IT Ministry said the government had asked Mr Grech to stay on as an acting new chairman after he resigned in December, and to provide a suitable handover to his successor, Godwin Grima, who was appointed in January.
After that he was asked to take on the advisory role.
“The complexity of the programmes and projects being run by the agency do not afford to have any gaps in terms of strategy and policy, particularly at this stage in the legislature,” the spokesman said.
Mr Grech had a letter of appointment from the minister and, “on his own request, Mr Grech receives no remuneration for the role”.
Asked why this was not communicated to the public, the spokesman said: “The appointment of consultants and advisers to ministers are not matters of public statements.”
Mr Grech, who is also a strategist with the Nationalist Party, had stepped down as Mita chairman, saying he was finding it increasingly difficult to juggle his work with that of his private consultancy business.
He resigned soon after the Data Protection Commissioner cleared him of claims of conflict of interest by Labour, which argued that as chairman of the government’s IT agency, he had access to personal data which he could abuse of as a campaign adviser of the Nationalist Party.
Speaking during a political party meeting in Naxxar, Dr Muscat argued that Mr Grech had merely changed his job description and the government did not have “the decency” to inform the public about this.
Apart from that, he said, Mr Grech had access to Mita’s offices and used government cars.
Mr Grech defended his position, saying: “Government asked me to contribute in a sector where I have considerable experience and I felt that, at this critical point in time of the implementation of a number of projects, my advice was due to the government.”
Such projects, he said, included the e-government and e-learning platform projects.
“I accepted on basis of the condition that there would be no remuneration whatsoever for the job,” he added. Asked if he received any form of benefits, he replied: “Absolutely zero… and I asked for it.”
He said that since he followed Mita projects he went to the offices but always tagged in when he went. He also denied using government cars.
The ministry spokesman said Mr Grech’s access to Mita was in line with the established access policies and “it is obvious that since he has to oversee Mita projects he has access to the offices”.