A board of inquiry appointed by the Office of the Prime Minister absolved the Cleansing Services director from any wrongdoing in the recruitment of his brother-in-law as a cleaner.

Last November, Times of Malta reported that Ramon Deguara, while acting as chairman of a three-member interviewing panel, had interviewed and recommended for recruitment his own brother-in-law without declaring the family connection.

But while the OPM’s board found it was true that Mr Deguara’s brother-in-law was one of the 70 new government cleaners recruited on the panel’s recommendation, it concluded that Mr Deguara had followed the rules.

“Mr Deguara was summoned to give his version of facts, where he stated that when the candidate in question (his brother-in-law) entered the interviewing room, he felt the necessity not to be present for the interview,” a spokesman for the Transport Ministry said.

“The other members of the board interviewed the candidate on their own merit and in no instance were they informed of the family connection, not to be influenced in the allocation of merits.”

She added that “in his statement Mr Deguara said that he did not know that the candidate in question (his brother-in-law) was one of the candidates identified from the ETC for the recruitment”.

A few weeks after the incident was reported, the inquiry board, which included three permanent secretaries, concluded that “the process was a regular and fair process.”

When contacted by this newspaper at the time, Mr Deguara had not denied the allegations but refused to say why he did not feel the need to inform the other members of the panel about his familiarity with the interviewee.

“We interviewed a total of 1,700 people according to a list provided by the ETC,” he had said when asked why he had interviewed his brother-in-law.

The Transport Ministry too had denied knowing anything about the affair and said the minister, Joe Mizzi, would be looking into the issue.

Times of Malta is now informed that a few weeks after the incident was reported, Mr Deguara was absolved of any wrongdoing by the OPM’s board.

Mr Deguara was last June appointed the whistleblower reporting officer for the entire Ministry for Transport and Infrastructure, and the ministry’s spokesperson confirmed he still occupied the post.

The recruitment of some 70 new cleaners within the ministry had already made headlines when it was revealed that one of the cleaners recruited, Lourdes Camilleri, happened to be the minister’s sister-in-law.

Mr Mizzi had denied any personal involvement in her recruitment, saying everything was done above board.