A Transport Malta board member has stepped down to be given a top job in the same entity.

Mark Sammut, who was appointed board member soon after Labour won the last election, is now chief officer responsible for IT and land transport. No public call for the post is known to have been issued.

Dr Sammut currently owns a private IT company which provides services to government departments, including Transport Malta.

Asked about the appointment, a spokeswoman for Transport Ministry only confirmed that Dr Sammut had resigned from the board of directors.

“Dr Sammut is currently the chief officer of land transport and he does not form part of the board of directors,” was the only reply to the questions put including whether his private company or another he used to own are still providing services to Transport Malta and whether this clashes with his new role.

We cannot understand how the minister cannot see a serious conflict of interest between the roles of Dr Sammut as the chief of IT and the IT services offered by his private companies

Government sources told this newspaper Dr Sammut was given a financial package of some €60,000 a year for his new role, which includes overseeing the IT infrastructure.

“We cannot understand how the minister cannot see a serious conflict of interest between the roles of Dr Sammut as the chief of IT and the IT services offered by his private companies to the regulator,” the sources said.

According to Malta Financial Services Authority records, Dr Sammut is the sole shareholder of Cursor Ltd, an IT services company registered in Buġibba.

Until 2013, Dr Sammut was also the owner of Mallsystems Ltd, another IT services company registered under the same address as his other company. In May 2013, a few weeks after Labour’s election to power, all Dr Sammut’s shares in Mallsystems Ltd were transferred to Carmen Sammut, his wife.

In 2014, when Dr Sammut was still a Transport Malta director, the Transport Minister had said the government’s transport agency had a commercial contract with Mallsystems Ltd. He had insisted there was no conflict of interest because Dr Sammut was neither a director nor a shareholder of the company.

The notification of changes in the shareholding structure of Mallsystems Ltd were filed to the MFSA by his auditor, Robert Borg. Mr Borg is the financial controller of the General Workers’ Union and was board secretary of Transport Malta at the same time when Dr Sammut served as director.

In 2013, Dr Sammut was one of the main authors of the John Dalli report on the future of Mater Dei Hospital commissioned by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat. During the same year, Dr Sammut was also appointed IT consultant to then health minister Godfrey Farrugia.

Efforts to contact Dr Sammut for his comments proved futile until the time of writing.

ivan.camilleri@timesofmalta.com

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