Updated 1pm - Added PN statement
Embattled Broadcasting Authority chairwoman, Tanya Borg Cardona was also engaged to serve in the unit handling Malta’s presidency of the EU on a position-of-trust basis, this newspaper has learnt.
She was employed in February last year through a government contract to work within the unit that falls under the political responsibility of Deputy Prime Minister Louis Grech, the Times of Malta was told.
Asked if Ms Borg Cardona receives a salary from the government, a spokesman for the unit said she was rendering services related to protocol and had a remuneration pegged to salary scale 6 of the public service, amounting to €27,269.
“She was recruited on a position of trust basis,” the spokesman said.
As non-executive chairwoman of the broadcasting watchdog, Ms Borg Cardona receives an honorarium of €20,000 a year and a €500 monthly allowance for using her car on official duties.
She was appointed to chair the constitutional body in the beginning of 2016 on the recommendation of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.
According to the Constitution, members of the Broadcasting Authority cannot be public officers. The Constitution defines a public officer as “the holder of any public office or of a person appointed to act in any such office”.
Questions sent to Ms Borg Cardona, including whether she was receiving a salary from the government while serving as a non-executive chairwoman of the Broadcasting Authority, were still unanswered at the time of writing.
He could not interfere since the Broadcasting Authority is a constitutional body
According to the code of ethics for board directors in the public sector, which includes the Broadcasting Authority, Ms Borg Cardona was bound to inform in writing the other members of the board about her interests.
She was also asked about this but, again, no reply was forthcoming.
Given the constitutionality function of the regulator, which is often asked to decide on delicate political matters, the code also dictates that “board directors are duty bound to reject totally and immediately any undue pressure that is brought to bear on them to influence them in their behaviour or decisions”.
For the past two weeks, Ms Borg Cardona has been facing calls for her resignation after a meltdown in relations with the Broadcasting Authority staff.
On the instructions of their union – UHM Voice of the Workers – employees are staging industrial action and have publicly called on the Prime Minister to remove the chairwoman who, they say, is not fit for the job.
Ms Borg Cardona is resisting calls to step down and Dr Muscat has described the situation as “very serious”, though he insisted he could not interfere since the Broadcasting Authority is a constitutional body.
According to the Constitution, Ms Borg Cardona can only be removed by the President on the advice of the Prime Minister.
Article 118 states that “a member of the Broadcasting Authority may be removed from office by the President, acting in accordance with the advice of the Prime Minister, but he may be removed only for inability to discharge the functions of his office (whether arising from infirmity of mind or body or any other cause) of for misbehaviour”.
The Opposition has appealed to the Prime Minister to remove Ms Borg Cardona.
AD joins chorus of condemnation
Alternattiva Demokratika subsequently joined calls for Mrs Borg Cardona to be sacked.
In a letter addressed to President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca and shared with the media, AD secretary-general Ralph Cassar wrote that, if the Times of Malta news was confirmed, the BA chair should be removed from her post.
The Nationalist Party also redoubled its calls for the BA chair to step aside, saying these latest revelations simply confirmed that the broadcasting regulator's lack of impartiality.
Speaking at press conference this morning, PN broadcasting spokesman Clyde Puli said the BA could never be impartial if its chair was employed as a person of trust with the government.
He blamed Prime Minister Joseph Muscat for the "unprecedented" Constitutional crisis that had ensued, saying Dr Muscat had appointed someone without the necessary competence to run one of the country's most important institutions.