Identità CEO Mark Mallia is being lined up to replace Carmen Ciantar as head of the Foundation for Medical Services (FMS).
Ciantar, a close political aide to former health minister Chris Fearne, will not have her term renewed by the new minister, even though she has not yet been officially informed of the termination.
The change comes weeks after a surprise Cabinet reshuffle in which Jo Etienne Abela replaced Fearne as health minister. Fearne will be Malta’s nominee as EU commissioner later this year.
All heads of government entities are expected to submit their resignation letters once a minister is replaced. As FMS CEO, Ciantar did so following the cabinet reshuffle.
It is understood that the new health minister has chosen to accept the resignation and assign the FMS, which runs healthcare projects in Malta, new leadership.
Mallia has occupied several managerial posts and also served as Armed Forces of Malta Deputy Commander. He also spent five years as the right-hand man of former President George Abela.
Ciantar led Fearne's successful Labour deputy leadership campaign in 2017, a year after she took on the role of CEO at FMS.
Her appointment proved controversial after it emerged that she was being paid €163,000 a year to do that job, sparking the Nationalist Party to call on the government to cancel that lucrative deal.
'Frame up'
Last year, Ciantar was in the headlines after a Pakistani news website claimed she was the beneficiary of a huge bribe by the people behind Vitals Healthcare, at a time when the company was negotiating the hospitals' deal with the government.
The website claimed Ciantar received €443,500 from Gozo International Medicare Ltd – part of the VGH group – in less than four months.
VGH was handed the running of the St Luke’s, Karin Grech and Gozo hospitals in 2015.
Ciantar had denied the claims, noting that she was not employed by the foundation at the time alleged by the website, and saying she was being framed as part of a “dirty campaign” to discredit Fearne.
She temporarily suspended herself from the role before two months later returning to her post. A Brussels-based website that echoed the Pakistani news report publicly disavowed the claims some months later.
Over the past months, Ciantar testified in a magisterial inquiry concerning the hospital privatisation deal and also urged police to investigate the corruption claims.
By September, police had formally informed Ciantar that they had concluded exhaustive investigations into bribery allegations and there were “no grounds for any criminal action" against her.