Mepa’s new chief executive officer Johann Buttigieg.

Johann Buttigieg is the new chief executive officer of the Malta Environment and Planning Authority, a post that comes with a €60,000 pay packet, Times of Malta has learnt.

Mr Buttigieg had been earmarked for the post before an internal call for applications was issued after former CEO Ian Stafrace resigned.

He was one of two applicants and was chosen by a selection committee which, sources said, included Mepa chairman Vince Cassar.

The €60,000 salary is actually €5,000 less than what Dr Stafrace used to get.

His perks include the fully paid use of a mobile phone, a car maintained by the authority and a broadband internet connection at his residence.

Sources at Mepa said Mr Buttigieg, who has worked at the planning watchdog for a number of years, had been “ordering people around” just a few weeks after the March election. He is said to have been one of the reasons why Dr Stafrace quit in April.

When asked about this in May, the parliamentary secretary responsible for Mepa, Michael Farrugia, had admitted that Mr Buttigieg was his “point of reference” at the authority and was helping to give Mepa “a certain direction”.

He had said he had been instructing Mr Buttigieg on what needed to be done.

Asked why he had chosen Mr Buttigieg, Dr Farrugia said he could trust him. Mr Buttigieg could also provide him with precise information about what was going on.

Mr Buttigieg joined Mepa as an enforcement officer and became a case officer. He was subsequently appointed senior planning officer and was assigned to major projects, including the national flood relief project, the south Malta sewage treatment plant, the Ten-T project and Smart City.

Dr Stafrace’s resignation came a few hours after Mepa’s environmental protection director, Petra Caruana Dingli, stood down.

A spokesman for Dr Farrugia’s office said Dr Caruana Dingli’s post has been temporarily filled by Mr Cassar, who is not receiving any extra remuneration above the €18,000 he got as chairman.

The previous chairman, Austin Walker, had a salary which, at €93,000, was higher than what the President of Malta receives.

In addition, he was given a car, full use of a mobile phone and residential fixed line, home internet connection and health insurance coverage for himself, his wife and his dependents.

mxuereb@timesofmalta.com