A model Civil Servant – an impressive legacy
Patrick G. Staines, economist and historian, was a renowned top Civil Servant in Malta at the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) over a number of decades.
Described as a “model Civil Servant” and the “most accomplished professional Civil Servant of his generation”, he made a most remarkable contribution in the administrative and economic fields and also later in the sphere of historical research. He served over fifty years, during the British period when Malta was under Colonial administration (1958 - 1962) and during the Paul Boffa, Nerik Mizzi, George Borg Olivier, Dom Mintoff, and Eddie Fenech Adami periods.
He was highly respected for his intellect and integrity, for which he was widely known. As an intellectual and a Civil Servant of the highest calibre he was a constant point of reference and a mainstay at the Prime Minister’s Office throughout a long and illustrious career, spanning decades. In his heyday, he was referred to as “THE Civil Servant”.
He was the son of Theresa Staines (born Camilleri), the first ever lady graduate (May 1922) of the Royal University of Malta (in Philosophy, English Literature and Latin Literature), and of Edgar Staines, OBE, a distinguished Civil Servant of the pre-World War Two era, and a former Member of the Executive Council. He received his education at St Edward’s College, Cottonera, where he distinguished himself as a top student.
He was one of the first end-of-War intake of ‘higher division’ Civil Service appointees in July 1945, and rapidly made his mark in the highly regarded core of the Civil Service of the time. In 1950 he was the first Maltese Civil Servant to be sent to the UK for academic grounding and he graduated with distinction (first class) in Public Administration at Manchester University in 1953.
He subsequently lectured in Public Administration at the Royal University of Malta between 1959–62. In later years he went to the IMF Institute in Washington DC in January 1966 (it was a high-level Governors Meeting hosted by the IMF over two months and he was representing the Malta Government) and on a one-month Fellowship to the Institute of Development Studies at Sussex University in October 1971.
On his return from the UK in the Fifties, he was immersed in the Development Planning process of the crucial post-War and post-Independence years and, at the centre of government, was closely concerned in the drawing up of the first four Economic Development Plans from 1959 to 1973, and the formulation of economic strategies and policies during the Fifties, Sixties and first half of the Seventies.
In those years he was also responsible for the annual budgetary presentations and Financial Statements. He had been running the Economic Section at OPM - set up in 1955 - as de facto chief economist since the 1950s and throughout the 60s, despite politically motivated attempts in the post-Independence late Sixties to dislodge him – at the time he was known to be a pro-British Stricklandian which was anathema to certain elements in the PN – until he was officially declared head of Economic Planning in 1970. [His father, Edgar Staines, OBE, had warned “After Independence you are going to get a kick in the teeth”].
He was then appointed Permanent Secretary in January 1973, with continuing involvement in economic management, appointed by Dom Mintoff who was elected in June 1971. Effectively he was the economic supremo in the Civil Service and Malta Government.
As Permanent Secretary OPM, apart from economic affairs, he was also concerned with the full spectrum of government administration according to requirements.
Those years were particularly tense and hectic times and there were often major disagreements with the Prime Minister of the day. Patrick G Staines had the reputation of being the one - and only - Civil Servant who would challenge Dom Mintoff on matters of principle.
In the 1960s and 70s, he was directly concerned in the management of Government capital programmes and projects and the provision of economic advisory services. In the latter half of the Sixties, he represented the Malta Government at international conferences on economic development and related issues (in London, Nairobi and Istanbul), and he was a member of the Government team which from 1967 to 1971 was engaged in negotiating financial issues with the British Government.
During that period, he was also a Member of the Robens Steering Committee set up by the Maltese and British Governments, to manage the orderly unfolding after 1966 of the British Defence establishments’ rundown in Malta. Meetings of the Committee, chaired by Lord Alfred Robens, were held in Malta and also at the National Coal Board in London where Lord Robens was Chairman. This involved frequent trips to London where Lord Robens hosted the Maltese delegation at Claridge’s and The Savoy and where there were also informal discussions with members of the British Cabinet.
The British Services rundown in Malta affected many thousands of employees and the Steering Committee advised on development policies directed at the absorption into the Maltese economic sector of those for whom jobs could be found in Malta and it was also concerned with the setting up of the infrastructure and management training facilities, in relevant emigration skills, for the many employees who at that time opted for emigration.
In 1967, Patrick G Staines was directly involved in the setting up and launching of the Malta Development Corporation (MDC) and Central Bank of Malta, as major projects of economic infrastructure.
When visiting the IMF Institute in Washington in 1966 he was instrumental in securing technical assistance offered to the government in setting up the Central Bank. He drafted the MDC Act 1967 and the banking legislation and he was a Director of the MDC between 1970-72.
He represented the Government’s interests, after 1968, in the liquidation of Bailey (Malta) Limited, following the setting up of the Malta Drydocks Corporation, of which corporation he was also a director between 1971-72.
In the early Seventies he was also directly involved in the setting up of the national airline Air Malta and led Malta Government negotiations with Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) leading up to it. He was also a director of Manoel Island and Malta Marina Co Ltd (1969-73) relating to the Manoel Island development project.
In 1977, he retired from office, on grounds of ill-health, as permanent secretary, in a very toxic situation. After he retired, he was offered the Governorship of the Central Bank, on condition that he wrote a letter to PM Dom Mintoff thanking Dom Mintoff “for all that he did for him”, effectively boot-licking. This was arm-twisting by Mintoff and he flatly refused to stoop so low.
Between 1978 and 1987, he was engaged as Economic Adviser by the then Leader of the Opposition Edward Fenech Adami and was largely responsible for mapping out, in various documents and policy speeches, the Opposition’s economic policies as an alternative government. He returned to public service in May 1987 as adviser to Prime Minister Fenech Adami.
Effectively he was the economic brain behind the incoming Nationalist Administration. He wrote the Speech from the Throne on the opening of the new Parliament in July 1987 and the finance minister’s Budget Speech of that year.
In his role of economic adviser, he played a major part in the turnaround of the economy and the reformulation of economic policy at a time when new economic direction and orientation was required after years of command-style socialism and interventionist government. In those years of economic change and reform after 1987, Malta experienced a sure economic transformation leading up to EU Membership.
Post-1987, he was also again a director and Deputy Chairman of the Malta Development Corporation, a director of Air Malta and a director of Selmun Palace Hotel. He was also chairman of the Malta Council for Economic Development, chairman of the Malta Stock Exchange and a member of the University of Malta Council. He was appointed to Malta’s National Order of Merit in 1994.
He was also a keen historian in his later years, specialising in the British period and focusing in great depth on the first half of the 19th century, making a major contribution to Maltese History. He authored Essays on Governing Malta (1800-13), Essays on Governing Malta (1813-35) and Essays on Governing Malta (1835-51), after intensive and meticulous research in Malta and the UK.
This biography is part of the collection created by Michael Schiavone over a 30-year period. Read more about Schiavone and his initiative here.