I refer to a report, which covered parliamentary questions, entitled Pre-election Employment (April 30).

This article conveys the impression that the Central Bank of Malta recruited staff in the pre-election period, presumably in the period following the announcement of the election in December 2012.

This was certainly not the case. The bank started a normal recruitment exercise in January 2012 and completed it by November 2012 prior to the announcement of the general election date in December.

However with regard to the recruitment of one economist of Polish nationality in August 2012, she could only start her employment with the bank in January 2013 on completion of her doctorate in economics. Four part-time employees, who were on the bank’s waiting list, after being interviewed in November, were offered employment in January mainly to replace three part-time employees who had terminated their employment soon after their employment in November.

It should be mentioned that detailed information on staff recruitment by the Central Bank of Malta for the period June 2012 to March 2013 was given by the Finance Minister Edward Scicluna, in Parliament in reply to PQ156 on April 30, 2013.