A projects director at the Foundation for Medical Services (FMS), who is currently working in the private secretariat of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, is facing accusations in court of retaining more than €6,500 in overpaid government remuneration.

Neville Gafa’, a member of the Labour Party executive who was implicated in the medical visas racket concerning Libyan patients, has now been accused of refusing to refund €6,538 in extra payments he received while working in the Health Ministry’s customer care office as a person of trust. The accusation was made by the Chief Medical Officer, Dennis Vella Baldacchino.

According to the court case instituted against Mr Gafa’, between July 2013 and May 2014 he claimed €7,237 for overtime when he was entitled to just €699.

Under government rules regulating work contracts in ministers’ private secretariats, persons of trust are not entitled to overtime payments. Instead, they are given a generous fixed monthly allowance in lieu of any extra hours worked over 40 hours.

However, this rule does not appear to have been followed in the case of Mr Gafa’.

His contract as a customer care officer with then health minister Godfrey Farrugia stipulated that he was entitled to a €116.50 allowance every month for ‘extra hours’ worked. However, he applied for, and received, payment for hundreds of hours of overtime he claimed to have worked.

In one particular month, May 2014, he claimed payment for 141 hours of overtime – equivalent to nearly a whole extra month of work – and was paid €1,865 in extra allowances, pocketing about €1,700 more than he was entitled to.

When this came to light, he was warned he was not entitled to overtime payments and was ordered to refund the extra money he had been paid. But he refused and is now facing court action.

In his reply presented in court, Mr Gafa’ said he was entitled to the payments made but gave no further explanation.

Mr Gafa’s overtime payments stopped in mid-2014 when he was put on a new contract by the then health minister Konrad Mizzi as projects manager at the FMS, which doubled his salary to about €45,000 a year.

Prior to being employed as a customer care official with the Health Ministry, Mr Gafa’ worked as a shop assistant with an optician.

Following the last general election, Mr Gafa’ has started working at the private secretariat of the OPM in customer care. However, instead of being given a contract similar to his colleagues in the same unit, Mr Gafa was kept on the FMS contract, earning more than double the salary of his colleagues.

Asked specifically to explain this anomaly, Mr Gafa’ refused to reply.

OPM sources describe Mr Gafa as a loyal friend to Keith Schembri – the PM’s right-hand man – saying that “he goes out of his way to assist OPM customer care clients”.

Mr Gafa is also facing court action by a Libyan whistleblower in the medical visas scandal that hit the headlines in the summer of 2016.

Khaled Ben Nasan alleges that Mr Gafa pocketed roughly €38,000 in fees for visas for wounded Libyans to be treated Malta, but the visas never materialised.

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