Ronnie Pellegrini.

Singer William Mangion, who represented Malta at the 1993 Eurovision Song Contest, has been appointed coordinator for the promotion of local bands.

Mr Mangion said he had been offered a one-year contract by the Government to help in the identification of a place where bands could rehearse.

“The proposal was made in Article 24 of the Labour manifesto and my job will be to try and identify such a place,” he said when contacted yesterday.

Mr Mangion, who had taken part in the Eurovision with the song This Time, had appeared in a Labour Party promotion video in which he sang the praises of Joseph Muscat “because he delivers on his promises”.

Mr Mangion said the letter of appointment was issued by the Office of the Prime Minister but he had not yet signed the contract.

“I have no idea of the conditions and pay but for me the most important thing is to work in a field that I know first-hand,” he said when asked what his remuneration would be.

With a 40-year career in the music scene, Mr Mangion said he knew what it felt like when bands had no place to rehearse.

His appointment follows that of other Labour Party sympathisers and billboard boys and girls to various public agencies after the election.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Competitiveness Parliamentary Secretariat denied that Ronnie Pellegrini, a manager at the GWU’s printing company and a former aide to the notorious 1980s Labour minister Lorry Sant, was going to be appointed chairman at Freeport Corporation.

However, the spokesman would not say whether Mr Pellegrini would form part of the Freeport board of directors.

“The appointments will be made public in the coming days,” he said.

The Freeport Corporation is the Government-appointed regulatory agency that oversees operations at Birżebbuġa and has nothing to do with the private company Freeport Terminals that operates the container tranship-ment port.

Attempts to contact Mr Pellegrini proved futile.