Health authorities hit back at calls for an investigation by the nurses' union president into how personal information was leaked to Times of Malta, saying the harm Paul Pace was complaining about was his own doing.
Times of Malta revealed in August how Pace was due to face a Public Service Commission disciplinary board after a fact-finding exercise concluded that he misappropriated public funds by requesting payment for work allegedly not carried out, even while he was abroad.
On Thursday, the newspaper reported that the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses chief has now demanded an investigation into how personal information related to the disciplinary action was leaked to Times of Malta.
He also wants a probe into how personal information found in his personal employment file had ended up in the hands of Labour Party political pundit Manuel Cuschieri.
His lawyer Chris Cilia filed a judicial protest against the permanent secretary at the Health Ministry, Mount Carmel chief executive and data controller Stephanie Xuereb as well as data controller and chief executive at Mater Dei Hospital, Joseph Debono and Celia Falzon respectively.
The lawyer claimed that the leaked information was confidential and had been transmitted illegally to an unauthorised third party by a public employee having access to Pace’s personal data and documentation held by the Health Department.
Such a leak, he argues, was in breach of the Public Administration Act and the Public Service Disciplinary Regulations, argued the lawyer.
The authorities immediately filed a counter-protest rebutting Pace’s claims as “totally unfounded” and calling on him to stop any further action in their regard.
They were rather “perplexed” by Pace’s claims since he himself had admitted, during disciplinary proceedings, “to unjustified enrichment to the tune of thousands of euros to the detriment of the Maltese government”, and yet, he was now seeking liquidation of damages after his actions were uncovered by the media.
“The damage he is complaining about is actually a consequence of his own behaviour,” countered the parties.
Moreover, the EU Regulation cited by Pace provided for exemptions and derogations from the Data Protection Act for journalistic purposes, and thus, the protesting party’s claims were “totally unfounded.”
Pace could certainly not rely on such legislation to “hide his illegal actions” which were in the public interest.
Even in terms of the Protection of the Whistleblower Act, no informant was to be subjected to any civil or criminal action or any disciplinary proceedings.
The counter-protest was signed by State Advocate Chris Soler, State Advocate lawyer Christian Ellul and lawyer Alex Sciberras.
In a Facebook post uploaded last month, lawyer Jason Azzopardi referred to Pace's case: “So, if you threaten the government with a strike by nurses, you are not arrested or interrogated over a €90,000 fraud which you admitted to in writing, and you are not dismissed from your government job."
Commenting on the most recent reply to the judicial protest, Azzopardi described the saga as a "Castille cover-up". He also said that the authorities were heavy-handed with those who committed even the slightest misappropriation but were treating Pace with silk gloves.