Health Ministry chief of staff Claudio Tonna will be resigning from his post to become projects manager.

His role will be to oversee capital projects such as the oncology hospital and the building of new wards at Mater Dei Hospital.

Contacted by Times of Malta, Mr Tonna was keen to stress that he had neither resigned nor been fired, as sections of the media claimed.

He said that after a 30-year career in the construction industry he felt he could contribute better in the new role rather than as chief of staff. The manager post, he added, had to be filled by someone who enjoyed the minister’s full trust and it was felt he would be the ideal candidate.

Mr Tonna said he was trying to find a replacement chief of staff.

“I will still be part of the team, albeit in a different role” he said.

Mr Tonna is the second chief of staff leaving his post since March, when the Labour Party was elected to government.

In May, Ramona Attard relinquished her post at the Parliamentary Secretariat headed by Ian Borg to take up the role of deputy chief of staff in the Home Affairs Ministry.