Kevin Camilleri, the Malta Enterprise official who assessed the application for the project that led to the death of Jean Paul Sofia has been sacked from his role as the head of the entity’s micro-enterprise unit, Economy Minister Silvio Schembri told parliament on Thursday afternoon.

Schembri also announced that he had accepted the resignations of Victor Carachi and Paul Abela, who both sat on the Malta Enterprise board as well as its investment committee.

Inquiry shows that operations 'leave a lot to be desired': Schembri

Schembri said the inquiry underlined that the modus operandi of several public entities “left a lot to be desired”, highlighting the shortcomings of Malta Enterprise's investment committee.

However, he said, "it also concluded that there was no relation between the allocation of land and the tragedy".

Schembri announced that the investment committee would be abolished until an audit into Malta Enterprise is completed.

On INDIS, which is responsible for government-owned industrial parks, Schembri said that many of the entity’s personnel have changed since the Corradino site where Sofia was killed was allocated in 2019.  

Schembri said he implemented several changes since taking over INDIS in 2020. Those include strengthening its insurance, legal and compliance departments.

Camilleri's position 'no longer tenable'

Schembri described Kevin Camilleri's position as “no longer tenable” in the wake of the report's findings.

The inquiry board had scathing words for Camilleri, saying he had “totally failed in his responsibilities” in moving the application forward when he should have advised against its approval.

Meanwhile, Victor Carachi told Times of Malta earlier on Thursday that he was resigning from his role at Malta Enterprise despite not having anything to do with the project’s approval, having coincidentally arrived late to the fateful meeting, long after the project had already been discussed and approved by his fellow board members.

Carachi, who also serves as the president of the General Workers’ Union, insisted that the meeting’s minutes clearly show that he wasn’t present when the project was discussed but his resignation would nonetheless stand “as a matter of ethics”.

Paul Abela, the president of the Chamber of SMEs, told Times of Malta later in the afternoon that he was also stepping down from the committee.

Asked for a reaction to the inquiry’s findings, Abela said that he wouldn’t be discussing the inquiry board’s work, insisting that he carried out his work “professionally, as he had done for several years”.

Two resignations on Wednesday

David Xuereb, the chair of the Occupational Health and Safety Authority, was the first to go, having resigned shortly after the publication of the report on Wednesday afternoon.

Xuereb told Times of Malta that he was "duty bound to respect the recommendations of said report irrespective of my opinion".

The board had harsh words for Xuereb, describing him as “completely detached from the authority’s day-to-day realities”, and calling on him to “consider his position”.

On Wednesday evening, Malta Enterprise deputy chair Peter Borg confirmed that he too had tendered his resignation.

Aside from sitting on the Malta Enterprise board, Borg also chaired the entity’s investment committee which, in May 2019, approved a proposal by All Plus Ltd to build a factory on government land in Corradino.