Civil society group Repubblika on Thursday expressed its disgust at the appointment of Ramona Attard to the Planning Authority appeals board.

In a statement, the group said Dr Attard’s credentials were purely partisan. She built her career within the Labour Party and in Labour government offices and also served as consultant and spokesperson to former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.

Now that Dr Muscat had to go because of corruption and the involvement of his office in investigations relating to the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, the people who worked with him were being thanked with public service careers.

The PA appeals board was a quasi-judicial board which had to function independently from the government. But Dr Attard’s appointment reduced it to another Labour Party tool.

Such appointments were effectively akin to a Soviet-style system where positions in public administration were not given to people who were competent but to those who were loyal to and active in the party in government.

Repubblika also referred to a statement in Times of Malta that former Labour Party CEO Randolph Debattista was to be given a post in the public sector. No one should get a post within the government because of losing one's job in the private sector. But the privileged within the PL were an exception.

The group then referred to the reports about the Film Commissioner’s behaviour saying these confirmed the damage done when people were appointed to government positions just because of their loyalty to the party in government.

Mr Grech was implementing a discriminatory system which destroyed free trade in the sector to the detriment of Malta's reputation, Repubblika said.