Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi said this evening that two serving policemen with well known political connections had been given posts which they were not suited for, and had seen their pay double as a result.

Speaking in Parliament on the adjournment, Dr Azzopardi said the security of the freeport was endangered when the government appointed as Chief Officer a serving police officer who has no idea or experience of the security work involved.

Dr Azzopardi said this officer, PS14 Clayton Fiteni, was senior to all security officers at the freeport but he had no experience of the work involved, especially that related to the fight against contraband. The important thing was that his pay had been raised from €18,000 to €35,000.  

Prior to his recent appointment, this sergeant had been given another post created specifically for him - to visit ministries and ensure that nothing was wrong.

But he apparently got fed up. He complained to Castille and the freeport post was created for him instead. 

Dr Azzopardi said equally unthinkable in a normal country was how another serving policemen, PC224 Jason Farrugia, was working as head of the Customer Care Unit of the Energy Ministry. He was given the post 18 months ago. Who had approved this appointment? What were the views of the current police commissioner? How could the police force win the people's confidence when a serving officer was serving in a post which was political and normally given to a person of trust?   

This officer, Dr Azzopardi said, had seen his pay increase from €17,000 a year to close to €30,000.

Dr Azzopardi said these and similar cases showed that the government did not distinguish between right and wrong. It did not really learn from its mistakes, if these could be called mistakes. What it regretted was not the mistakes, but being caught out.

This was a government which gave a cost of living increase of just 58c to ordinary people, and much more to those in its inner circle. Students had been given a rise of 2c. That was so different from what was given to these two officers.