Malta’s competition regulator has been operating without a director for the best part of a year, after the previous director retired from the role, Times of Malta has learnt.

Sources say this vacuum can potentially have serious implications for the legal validity of several decisions adopted by the competition office over the past months.

Godwin Mangion, who served as director general for competition at the Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority (MCCAA) for nine years, is believed to have retired last year, with the authority yet to find somebody to fill his shoes.

Sources at the Office of the Prime Minister confirmed that Mangion had retired several months ago and that recruitment for his replacement is “ongoing”.

But several sources who spoke to Times of Malta said the vacuum raises questions over whether decisions adopted by the competition office since Mangion’s departure can be challenged.

The Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority Act, the law which governs MCCAA, says that decisions taken by the authority need to be signed off by the respective director general, not the authority’s chair.

In the absence of a director general, it is unclear whether these decisions, such as a recent, as yet unpublished, decision to block Lidl from taking over a Scotts supermarket in Żabbar would stand up to legal scrutiny.

However, sources say it is not known whether the office could have prepared for this eventuality by delegating the office’s legal authority to another official.

Aside from the well-publicised Lidl case, the competition office has adopted several other decisions since the beginning of the year, including Easyjet’s purchase of SR Technics, an aircraft maintenance and repair company, and acquisitions and joint ventures within the medical and pharmaceutical fields.