Former Parliamentary Secretary Clyde Puli has vehemently denied an allegation made by Roderick Galdes, who holds a similar post in the new government, that the offices Mr Galdes took over from him were found in a mess.
Mr Puli said a photo of an office showing wires on the floor, which was passed on to The Times by Mr Galdes and published on Monday, did not show the office he used to occupy at Casa Leone in Santa Venera but that of a government agency on an upper floor.
He said the government had decided to move 30 employees of two agencies out of their offices to make way for new Minister Leo Brincat and his parliamentary secretary Mr Galdes.
The former parliamentary secretary condemned the “false impression” given by Mr Galdes, who is a political rival on his electoral district.
“We left the offices on Friday evening in perfect condition and this was verified by high civil service officers in the same ministry according to protocol. I really can’t understand why Mr Galdes tried to give a different impression and make a story out of this,” an irate Mr Puli said.
The Times is informed that the offices on the upper floor of Casa Leone were until last Wednesday occupied by the National Commission for Higher Education and the Malta Qualifications Council.
A few hours after the swearing-in of the new Labour Cabinet, senior government officials gave notice to the agencies’ roughly 30 employees to vacate their offices immediately and make way for the new minister and parliamentary secretary.
“We had to move all our stuff within just a few hours without any proper arrangements of where we should go,” an employee of the Commission said. “We had to do everything ourselves, including dismantle equipment.”
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that until yesterday the two agencies were barely functioning, having to work out of the premises of a school across the road from Casa Leone. A UĦM official even called at the temporary offices and told the agencies to find a proper solution for the staff.
Mr Galdes, who had supplied this newspaper with four photos, said it was The Times that chose to publish the photo of an office that had not been occupied by Mr Puli.
The Times can state, however, that Mr Galdes passed on that photo as representing what he found when he took over Mr Puli’s offices.
Yesterday he said there were two servers in the building, one in Mr Puli’s office “with wires hanging out” and the other on the top floor (occupied by the agencies) which was missing.
“What is sure is that in all the offices we had no stationary, internet and functioning phones,” he said, adding that this was being investigated by the government’s IT agency MITA.
According to government procedures, the Directorate for Corporate Services in every ministry is responsible for the handing-over process.
All changes to the offices have to be verified and inventories are drawn up while computers are normally returned to the companies that leased them and personal belongings taken home.