Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi has spelt out the Public Service Commission’s policies since 2008 on re-employment and re-instatement of public service personnel, who have fallen foul of their service obligations.
The commission’s decisions may be appealed.
He was answering a parliamentary question by the Labour Party’s Helena Dalli.
The commission considers such re-employment or re-instatement in cases of former public service officials who have completed a prison sentence of not more than three years, or who have been dismissed from the service for drug-related charges but who have taken rehabilitation programmes.
Other cases include former members of the forces of law and order who may be engaged in other grades, and former public service officials who are still more than two years away from their statutory retirement age.
Dr Gonzi said other considerations in the public interest included those of former nurses, going by the tenets of the agreement reached with their union.
Applications are not considered before the lapse of six months but no longer than two years from the date of dismissal or completion of sentence, whichever occurred later.
Re-employment or re-instatement occur after a competent board’s favourable assessment that the former public service officials are still capable of carrying out the duties into which they are asking to be re-instated.
Going into statistics, the Prime Minister said that since 2008, out of 88 requests for re-employment 53 had been accepted, 12 rejected and 23 were still pending.
As regards re-instatement, there had been 30 requests, of which 18 had been accepted, three had been rejected and nine were still pending.