About a quarter of police officers reinstated after Labour’s return to power in 2013 were allocated non-policing duties in government ministries, the Times of Malta is informed.

Police sources said only a handful of the over 100 officers who returned to the corps six years ago were still active in the force.

“Most of them have retired again, though receiving a much higher pension,” a senior officer said.

The few remaining others, he continued, were doing office jobs at the police headquarters or asked to be seconded to government ministries, including as private secretaries to ministers they used to “help” before the election.

According to recent information given in Parliament, 119 police officers were reinstated since 2013 following a change in the rules.

Twenty-six of them are serving in ministries though still on the police payroll. These included the Office of the Prime Minister and the ministries responsible for justice, Gozo, education and transport. Others were seconded to the Freeport, Identity Malta and even an NGO.

The police sources described such secondments as unnecessary, deeming them “the usual political favours so certain people can continue receiving a pay without making such a big effort”.

According to police rules in force until 2013, only officers who had not been in retirement for more than 10 years could rejoin.

Former officers aged over 55 years were not eligible for reinstatement. The rules were changed under then national security minister Manuel Mallia and former police commissioner Peter Paul Zammit, himself reinstated.

Among those who returned to the force post-2013 were officers who had retired more than 25 years earlier, in 1986 and 1987. Some of those who passed the medical exam to rejoin were already over 61 years old.

Some of the reinstated officers worked for a few hours a week, receiving a pro-rata payment in addition to their service pension.

Some of those who rejoined in 2013 were promoted and left the force soon after, making them eligible to a higher pension.

In a case that hit the headlines, an officer who had retired 12 years earlier and who could not stand on his feet for an extended period of time and even qualified for a blue badge, was reinstated and promoted to the rank of sergeant. He was detailed to the VIP section at Malta International Airport.

ivan.camilleri@timesofmalta.com