The Cultural Heritage Act – the law under which Heritage Malta is set up and operates – does not cater for the position at the agency which Principal Permanent Secretary Mario Cutajar has been given.
The ‘second government job’ given to Mr Cutajar, over and above his role of chief civil servant, does not exist in any other government entity, Times of Malta can also reveal.
Mr Cutajar, the highest paid civil servant, is now receiving an additional €19,000 a year after being appointed a director with executive powers on the board of Heritage Malta.
According to the Cultural Heritage Act, the agency is governed by a board of directors, one of whom shall be the chairperson, another the deputy chairperson and one of the other members nominated by the Gozo Ministry.
The law does not envisage any other board member being given executive powers like those given to Mr Cutajar.
The law clearly stipulates that the executive decisions and day-to-day running of the agency are the responsibility of the chief executive officer who is appointed by the board and responsible to it. It is not yet known who, as executive director, Mr Cutajar responds to.
“It is ridiculous that the Principal Permanent Secretary is also an executive director of Heritage Malta. The agency has absolutely nothing to do with his functions and is creating problems with the running of the agency,” a senior official at Heritage Malta said.
The agency already employs a full-time chief executive officer who, according to the law, is answerable to the chairperson who is former Gozo minister and Labour MP Anton Refalo, and the rest of the board.
Since Mr Cutajar has been given an additional remuneration package, other permanent secretaries insisted they be treated likewise
While Mr Cutajar is being paid €19,000 for being a member of the board, with executive powers, his ‘boss’, chairman Anton Refalo is paid less than him.
Asked a series of questions on his new role, including to state how many hours every week is he dedicating to his new executive role at Heritage Malta, Mr Cutajar did not reply.
Apart from his role as Principal Permanent Secretary, Mr Cutajar is also the Secretary to the Cabinet, a role which entails steering of a group of senior public officials working under his supervision at the Cabinet Office.
As Cabinet Secretary, Mr Cutajar is not additionally remunerated as this is considered part and parcel of his full-time job.
So far, Mr Cutajar has also refused to state how many other permanent secretaries are currently sitting on government boards and agencies and whether they are being remunerated.
Times of Malta is informed that since Mr Cutajar has been given an additional remuneration package through a second job, other permanent secretaries at different ministries are insisting that they also should be treated likewise.
Mr Cutajar, who spent many years as deputy secretary-general of the General Workers’ Union while retaining his post in the civil service, was catapulted to the top echelons of the civil service on the same day that Labour was returned to power in 2013.
Before, he spent years in a managerial position at Heritage Malta, until he fell out with the agency’s then administration.
A few days ago, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat told Parliament that Mr Cutajar has been awarded a €7,000 sum in compensation for an injustice he suffered at his workplace.
The decision was made by an inquiry board set up in 2014 when he was already head of the civil service. Mr Cutajar has now returned to his former employer as an executive director.