Appointing hand-picked cleaners, dog handlers and messengers was not a perversion of the position of trust system, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said yesterday.

“No, I’m sorry, I don’t agree. If I want someone working in my office, it would have to be somebody I can trust,” he said when asked about a report that appeared in Times of Malta yesterday that 64 people had been employed on a position of trust basis by four ministries since the 2013 election.

According to information given in reply to a parliamentary question tabled by Nationalist MP Mario de Marco, the appointments were made at the Family, Home Affairs, Economy and Equality Ministries. They included low pay grade appointments such as customer care personnel and secretaries. A dog handler was recruited at the Civil Protection Department by the Home Affairs Ministry.

A ministry spokeswoman said the person in question was an expert who had been employed to train dogs to sniff out drugs in prison, and others for search and rescue operations.

The PN had made ‘loads’ of such appointments and employed some people illegally... Some were made a few weeks before the last general election

Times of Malta reported last year that the dogs at Corradino Correctional Facility had become “spoilt” because of too much interaction with inmates, rendering the €3,000 canines “little more than expensive and well-trained pets.”

When an appointment is made on a position of trust basis, no public call for applications is issued and the recruitment is not necessarily based on the person’s qualifications or experience. Dr Muscat defended the appointments, drawing comparisons to the previous administration.

He said the Nationalist government had not only made “loads” of such appointments but some people had even been employed illegally.

Asked to elaborate, he would only say that more information would be made available in the near future and later added that some appointments had been made right up to a few weeks before the last general election.

Dr Muscat was speaking during a press conference, during which he announced that about 4,000 members of the disciplined forces (that is, security and military) would be allowed to join a trade union.

A law allowing members of the Armed Forces of Malta, the police, the Civil Protection Department and correctional officers to join unions was signed by the President earlier this week.

Dr Muscat said the people had shown confidence in the officers by giving them such a right and he urged them not to misuse that trust. The officers will not be able to strike.

Asked for an update on the Swiss Leaks saga, Dr Muscat said he was yet to be given the names of politically exposed persons on the list.