An army injustices board has opened the floodgates for complaints, some going as far back as the 1950s, its chairman says.

Former army commander Maurice Calleja said that, since the board was set up two years ago, “everyone is suddenly deciding to complain”, denying a conflict of interest when recommending a promotion to rectify an ‘injustice’ under his watch 23 years ago.

The board was set up soon after the Labour Party’s electoral victory in 2013 with a remit to address complaints by both retired and serving soldiers.

In one case, the board recommended that a retired high-ranking officer, Major Joseph Mary Galea, be promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel with effect from January 1992, when the army was headed by Brig. Calleja himself.

“I had no conflict of interest in this. At the time when I was commander, this chap didn’t come to me to complain. He only decided that he suffered an injustice 23 years later,” Brig. Calleja told the Times of Malta.

Read more in the Times of Malta.