Former Labour president Mario Vella, who was appointed Malta Enterprise chairman following the change in government, was now also serving as CEO, an Economy Ministry spokesman confirmed.

It is not yet known whether he will be receiving additional remuneration for his new role. Questions to the ministry were not answered by the time of going to print.

This is none of your business

His appointment followed the resignation of Sue Vella, who had been serving as Malta Enterprise CEO since May last year.

Contacted by Times of Malta, Dr Vella confirmed she had recently stepped down to take a University post but declined to comment further.

Earlier, the newspaper sought confirmation of her departure by calling at the Malta Enterprise head office in Pietà. The receptionist confirmed that Dr Vella no longer worked there but was not in a position to say who was the new CEO.

The enquiry was channelled to the chairman’s secretary but the conversation came to an abrupt end when she realised that the enquiry was being made by this newspaper.

“This is none of your business,” she said as she hung up the phone.

Later in the day, an Economy Ministry spokesman contacted Times of Malta, apologising for the earlier incident. He said that following Dr Vella’s resignation on July 31, the board decided to assign to Mario Vella the dual role of chairman and CEO.

Dr Vella had joined Malta Enterprise as chief operations officer in March 2010.

Prior to that she was CEO at the Employment and Training Corporation when she was also serving as vice president of the Employment Committee in Brussels and chair of its technical group.

She has worked in public sector consultancy also serving on a number of public sector boards and committees including vocational education, housing, social welfare and pension reform.