[attach id=249061 size="medium"]ARMS CEO Wilfred Borg.[/attach]
Suspended ARMS CEO Wilfred Borg stands to lose a €50,000 bonus if he is forced out of his job, The Times has learnt.
The five-figure bonus is automatically payable if Mr Borg, who has so far defied Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi’s calls for his resignation, makes it to the end of his contract with the troubled utility-billing firm.
It would round off a lucrative salary package that included a €40,000 one-off bonus when Mr Borg joined ARMS in October 2010 and €70,000 a year in salary and allowances.
Mr Borg has scrupulously avoided comment since Dr Mizzi publicly demanded his resignation earlier this month. He maintained that stance when contacted, insisting he had no comment to make.
He was suspended on April 15 by ARMS’s new board of directors, led by chairman Anthony Valvo. Mr Borg was informed of the board’s decision in writing and the board has so far not heard his side of the story from him directly.
Nationalist MP Tonio Fenech – who appointed Mr Borg during his time as Finance Minister – said he could not recall the precise details of the CEO’s remuneration.
He noted that Mr Borg had been hand-picked from Air Malta after a public call for applications had failed to identify a suitable candidate.
“Mr Borg had a very good contract with Air Malta, which had to be matched for him to move,” Mr Fenech said.
The €40,000 signing on bonus was included to compensate for receiving an inferior basic salary, he added.
Dr Mizzi’s call for Mr Borg’s resignation came after a series of ARMS-related controversies were made public.
Problems ranged from a reported case of theft by an employee to an IT irregularity that led to more than 3,000 low-income individuals receiving energy vouchers lower than they were entitled to.
According to the Energy Ministry, it was the voucher blunder that prompted Dr Mizzi to demand Mr Borg’s resignation late on April 12.
That same evening, the authorities had received a tip-off that the alarm system and CCTV cameras at the company’s offices in Blata l-Bajda had been mysteriously turned off. That security breach is being investigated.
Mr Borg would remain suspended until the internal investigation was concluded, Dr Mizzi told Parliament.
Mr Fenech admits he was perplexed by the Government’s decision.
“Mr Borg had turned ARMS around, although, of course, problems remained. Was it Mr Borg’s direct responsibility to ensure IT reports were correct? By that same argument, the minister himself should resign,” he said.
An investigation into ARMS’ management structures and procedures is also under way.
Established five years ago, ARMS Ltd has had a troubled history. A 2011 Auditor General report, ordered by Parliament in September 2010, had found significant customer service failings.
An update to that report published late last year was similarly uncomplimentary. Although it found that some progress had been registered since 2010, the National Audit Office report noted that the company did not adequately assess its own customers’ usage trends.