Former Parliamentary Secretary Michael Falzon will have to return more than half his ‘early retirement’ grant if he opts to return to his job at Bank of Valletta, the Times of Malta has learnt.
According to senior bank officials, if Dr Falzon opts to return next month he will have to pay back about €145,000 of the €260,000 grant given to him in 2014.
It is not yet known whether Dr Falzon has decided to return to his former job and questions sent to him yesterday remained unanswered.
When contacted, a BOV spokesman said: “There has been no further development in the relationship between the bank and Dr Falzon.”
There has been no further development in the relationship between the bank and Dr Falzon- BOV spokesman
Following his appointment as parliamentary secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister last April, Dr Falzon and the bank – which had been his employer for 30 years – had reached an ad hoc agreement through which he qualified for a €260,000 cash payment as early retirement. However, unlike the 117 BOV officials granted early retirement before him, Dr Falzon was given the option of returning to his banking job if he chose to do so by the end of this legislature.
Defending the agreement, which was harshly criticised by senior BOV employees, the bank employees’ union and the Opposition, bank chairman John Cassar White had said this was “a hybrid solution to cater for the unique circumstances involved in the case”.
“Dr Falzon was the first BOV employee called to serve the Cabinet and the bank is committed to help an employee who is called to give a national public service,” he had said.
Addressing the bank’s annual general meeting in December, Mr Cassar White stressed that “if Dr Falzon returns to the bank before the end of the legislature, he has to return a major part of his retirement benefits to the bank”.
Dr Falzon had “until the end of this legislature to decide whether to return to the bank and cannot return afterwards”, he said. As senior legal officer at the bank, Dr Falzon earned €70,000 a year, €15,000 more than the annual salary of a parliamentary secretary. As a junior Cabinet member, Dr Falzon had to forego his parliamentary honorarium. If he decides to take up employment at the bank again, he would be able to keep the €22,000 honoraria as an MP, over and above the bank salary.
LANDS DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL RESIGNS
Meanwhile, the Land Department’s director for estate management, Charles Camilleri, has resigned in the wake of an Auditor-General report which found that he colluded with Mark Gaffarena in the shady expropriation of his property in Valletta.
A government spokesman confirmed that Mr Camilleri first went out on leave yesterday and then resigned before the close of the working day.
The department’s staff were yesterday barred from entering their offices after a lock down ordered by the government to ensure no documents were handled.
The National Audit Office investigated the deal, which was first revealed by this newspaper last May, and concluded that Mr Camilleri was one of the main trio
of people that led to “irregularities” that were in “clear breach of the fundamental principles of good governance, transparency and fairness”.
Mr Camilleri was at the centre of negotiations and there were several reports of frequent visits by Mr Gaffarena to his office almost on a weekly basis. The visits
continued even after the Times of Malta had shed light on the scandal and throughout the eight months of investigation by the Auditor General.