Frederick Amato-Gauci, “the exemplary civil servant” who devised Malta’s social services and built the diplomatic services from scratch, passed away yesterday leaving behind structures the country still benefits from.
“He was one of the most efficient and exemplary civil servants who, from scratch, started building whole departments. He was really a manager... a first-class organiser and a model for all civil servants,” former Ombudsman Joe Sammut, who first met Mr Amato-Gauci in the 1950s, said.
At the time, Mr Sammut worked in the Department of Trade and Industry and Mr Amato-Gauci headed the Labour Office.
“I regret that I have never been his direct subordinate. I always admired his uprightness and efficiency,” Mr Sammut said.
Mr Amato-Gauci, 98, was also the man tasked with setting up the diplomatic service when Malta gained independence from the British in 1964.
He was the person I looked up to most, my mentor. His brain was amazing and, when that started to fade, I really missed it
Alfred Bonnici, former Speaker of the House, recalled whose days: “He was a gentleman, hardworking, very intelligent. We still benefit from his work till today because he was involved in building social services, the national insurance system and foreign affairs...
“Sometimes, people forget that these things didn’t fall from the sky. Someone worked hard to set them up.”
In an article penned in July 2013, the former secretary at the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Evarist Saliba, described Mr Amato-Gauci as “the prominent civil servant” who was sent to London to study the structure and functions of such a service
“[Mr] Amato-Gauci also launched a system of recruitment for diplomats that included a stiff written examination and day-long interviews, usually followed by training overseas. One successful candidate was Alfred Sant, who later became prime minister and Labour leader,” he wrote.
In comments sent to this newspaper in tribute to Mr Amato-Gauci, Dr Sant, now an MEP, wrote: “I treasure his memory for the deeply human approach he adopted towards man management, even if it was well camouflaged under the outwardly detached style.”
The soft side behind his “outwardly detached style” emerged during an interview published in Times of Malta on Valentine’s Day 2009, a month after he celebrated his 68th wedding anniversary with his late wife, Josephine. The two were married in January 1941 and had three children: Ann and Sandra and the late Alan.
In the interview, the couple recalled how they first met, through friends, when he had just sat for his exam to enter the civil service and had been praying to Birkirkara’s Madonna tal-Ħerba.
“When the results arrived he asked me to go with him to thank Our Lady,” his wife had said.
Their daughter, Ann Gingell Little John, said yesterday of her father: “He had a wonderful laconic wit and a great sense of humour and was so charming... My father was my éminence grise. He was the person I went to when I needed advice and he always gave me the right advice. He was the person I looked up to most, my mentor. His brain was amazing and, when that started to fade, I really missed it.”
The funeral Mass will be held on Monday, at 8.45am, at St Gregory church, Sliema.