PBS chief executive Anton Attard said in court today that he never heard anyone mention that the chief of staff of the Home Affairs Ministry, Silvio Scerri, wanted to get rid of presenter Norman Vella.

Mr Attard was testifying this afternoon before the Employment Commission that is hearing the case that Mr Vella, the former presenter of TVHemm, instituted against Mario Cutajar, head of the civil service, and Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.

Mr Vella is claiming political discrimination in the way he was re-deployed from PBS to the Immigration Department, where he had originally worked. Mr Vella had been deployed to PBS in August 2012 on grounds of public policy.  He was on unpaid leave, during which time he worked as production manager for programmes which also included Xarabank and Bijografiji.

Mr Attard said he knew Mr Vella to be a very competent producer and presenter; however, feedback from the editorial board and board of directors about Mr Vella was mixed.

TVHemm featured well according to surveys by the Broadcasting Authority.

The only formal complaint lodged against TVHemm was by former Nationalist MP Franco Debono over a programme aired on December 17, 2012.

Another complaint, that was not formal, was made by the Nationalist Party over the same programme when Dr Debono was a guest.

Where’s Everybody had applied to include TVHemm in the 2013-2014 schedule. He did not interfere in the decision even though he was present, as a non-voting member, during editorial board meetings. The general feeling during the meeting was to have different programmes by different people.

He found out about the re-deployment of Mr Vella when the permanent secretary at the Ministry of Home Affairs, Kevin Mahoney wrote to him, on May 20, asking when the programme schedule would end. Sometime later Mr Mahoney wrote back saying that Mr Vella was needed back at the airport.

Lawyer Andrew Borg Cardona then asked where journalists employed by PBS at the end of 2013 had worked before. He mentioned Brandon Pisani, Rodney Vassallo and Dorothy Falzon.

Mr Attard said they were all employed by PBS following a public call and previously worked with One TV . Asked about Norma Saliba, he said she was seconded from MEUSAC at the request of the head of news.

He was also asked about Charles Sacco and Owen Galea, who handled the TVM website. Mr Attard said Mr Galea used to work with Inews. He did not know about Mr Sacco.

Replying to other questions, Mr Attard said he spoke to Mr Scerri about Mr Vella's programme in the same way as he spoke to him about other programmes.

Asked if he did the same with Mr Scerri’s Nationalist predecessor he said it was different as Mr Scerri was familiar with how the media worked.