Tourism Minister Edward Zammit Lewis has been the butt of an ongoing joke in tourism industry circles after he erroneously sent an e-mail to the wrong recipient.

While the Times of Malta has confirmed that the top civil servant at the Tourism Ministry has been unceremoniously replaced, former permanent secretary Mario Rodgers only got to know of his planned removal through mere chance.

Sources close to Dr Zammit Lewis confirmed that an e-mail which the minister intended to send to Principal Permanent Secretary Mario Cutajar suggesting names to replace Dr Rogers was sent to the wrong Mario.

“Due to some distraction, Dr Zammit Lewis made the crucial mistake of sending his e-mail suggesting the replacement of his right hand man to Mario Rodgers instead of Mario Cutajar,” the sources said.

“Obviously, when he received the unexpected e-mail and learning that his minister was replacing him, Dr Rodgers, a seasoned civil servant, was not very amused,” the sources said.

A member of Dr Zammit Lewis’s secretariat said the minister immediately realised the mistake when he pressed the wrong ‘Mario’ in his e-mail address book.

“However, at that stage there was nothing that could be done as the minister’s e-mail was already on its way to Dr Rodgers’s inbox,” the official said.

Asked to state whether he had resigned his post, Dr Rodgers did not reply by the time of writing.

Dr Rodgers, who has been a civil servant for the last 40 years, was appointed permanent secretary to then Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi a few days after Labour returned to power in 2013.

However, he only lasted a year working with Dr Mizzi as in April 2014 he was appointed permanent secretary at the Tourism Ministry. It is not yet known what will be Dr Rodgers’s new posting.

According to the Constitution, permanent secretaries are appointed by the President following their nomination by the Prime Minister and are supposed to be non-political appointees. However, in practice, these officials are selected by ministers through the Principal Permanent Secretary.

Dr Zammit Lewis’s gaffe reminded many at the Tourism Ministry of a similar embarrassing mistake made by the then PN general secretary Paul Borg Olivier a few years back.

Dr Borg Olivier had sent a ‘hot’ confidential e-mail to the then parliamentary secretary Jason Azzopardi. He too chose the wrong recipient and the information went straight into the inbox of Jason Micallef – then Labour’s secretary general.

ivan.camilleri@timesofmalta.com

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