Ombudsman Anthony C. Mifsud has rejected claims he is failing to abide by his own standards by employing people on a position of trust basis.

Positions of trust are often seen as a way to give unjustified promotions to friends and supporters, bypassing the usual engagement rules for public service.

Civil service chief Mario Cutajar took a dig at the ombudsman on Tuesday, accusing him of hypocrisy.

Mifsud has long flagged the practice of hiring people from outside the civil service on a so-called position of trust contract as being potentially abusive and in violation of the constitution. But Cutajar said he was informed Mifsud himself had “people employed on a position of trust basis”.

Consultants, but no persons of trust

However, a spokesperson for the ombudsman told Times of Malta that the office does not employ anyone on a position of trust basis. The spokesperson said the ombudsman’s office, which is a parliamentary body independent from the civil service, is free to employ people to aid him in his functions.  These employees are not public officials, the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson added that the ombudsman had engaged Joseph Said Pullicino, a former ombudsman and chief justice, as a consultant to make use of his experience and expertise.

He emphasised that Said Pullicino plays no direct role in investigations carried out by the ombudsman’s office.

Mario Cutajar accused the Ombudsman of double standards earlier this week. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

The spokesperson said information about employees in the ombudsman’s office, including details about their employment, had been passed on to parliament in response to a parliamentary question.

The practice of ministers employing people from outside the civil service was recently the subject of appeals by Standards Commissioner George Hyzler to better regulate the system.

Cutajar, in turn, insists the engagement of persons of trust is regulated by a specific policy and manual and the employment is terminated once the minister or parliamentary secretary in question finishes his tenure.

The number of persons of trust was highlighted as an issue of concern in an evaluation by the Venice Commission of Malta’s democratic infrastructure in 2018.

In its report after a visit to the island, the Council of Europe’s advisory body on constitutional law had noted that even people working as gardeners or drivers had been recruited through the persons-of-trust procedure.

Government reacts: Need for clear, publicly-known procedure

In a reaction to the comments by the Office of the Ombudsman, the Department of Information said on Thursday that the story’s header contradicts the article’s content in as much as a ‘consultant’ is a ‘person of trust’. The issue is not whether the overseeing institutions have the right to employ persons of trust/consultants but on having a clear, transparent, and publicly-known procedure about their recruitment, it said. 

"For good governance’ sake, all institutions having an oversight remit, should have their own transparent and well-defined recruitment and standard operating procedures. These should be available to all. They should include all constitutional bodies, not only the Parliamentary Ombudsman, but also the office of the Commissioner for Standards in Public Life, which is itself overwhelmingly staffed with persons of trust."

It said that for the first time ever, the Public Service nowadays has well-defined standards, and a specific manual regarding employment procedures of persons of trust/consultant.

"Shouldn’t the institutional overseers also have one?" it asked.