Wilfred J. Borg

The government has called for the resignation of the ARMS chief executive officer Wilfred J. Borg.

In a statement this evening, it said that the situation at ARMS had been problematic since the company was set up to the detriment of families and businesses.

Besides the systematic errors that were uncovered in the past years and the unacceptable level of service, a number of abuses were also uncovered it the past days, leading to a police investigation.

The government had now been informed that ARMS had passed on wrong information to the Social Security Department, and, as a result, energy benefits were issued at a much lower rate than due.

The Times learnt this morning that a number of individuals had received the energy benefit voucher for April that excluded the subsidy on consumption. The voucher only catered for the subsidy on the water and electricity meters.

A consumer who called the Social Security Department to enquire was told that this could have been a mistake. No further explanations were given.

The Times this morning enquired about the matter with the Social Policy Ministry. It was told that energy benefits on consumption have not changed.

However, the vouchers were issued with an erroneous lower amount as a result of incorrect data provided by ARMS’ supplier to the department. This situation resulted in a total of 3,119 out of a total of 3,897 vouchers being issued.

The ministry said that the department was to take immediate action to issue another voucher with the difference.

The government said in its statement this evening was only the most recent of a series of serious and unacceptable errors which the taxpayer was paying for.

The government said it was expecting the CEO to hand over his resignation immediately.

Answering parliamentary questions by Gino Cauchi, then Finance Minister Tonio Fenech said in 2010 that Mr Borg had a basic salary of €65,223 and an annual allowance of €4,669, as well as a 15 per cent performance bonus.

Mr Fenech had said that the CEO’s five-year definite contract also included telephone expenses and the insured use of a car.

Before joining ARMS, Mr Borg was chief officer at Air Malta.