Health Ministry chief of staff Claudio Tonna, will be resigning from his post to take the role of projects manager within the ministry.

His role will be to oversee capital projects such as the oncology hospital and the building of new wards at Mater Dei Hospital.

Contacted by timesofmalta.com, Mr Tonna stressed he had neither resigned nor been fired as sections of the media had claimed.

However, he said that after a 30-year career in the construction industry he felt he had more to contribute in his new role.

He said the new post had to be filled by a person who enjoyed the minister’s trust and it was felt that he would be the ideal candidate.

Mr Tonna said that he was now in the process to find a replacement. “I will be still part of the team albeit in a different role,” he said.

Mr Tonna is the second chief of staff leaving his post since March, when Labour was elected to Government.

In May, Ramona Attard relinquished her post in the Parliamentary Secretariat headed by Ian Borg, to take up the role of deputy chief of staff in the Home Affairs Ministry.