Kenneth Zammit Tabona, former artistic director of the national theatre, failed to report to work for over nine months, yet still received full pay.
Cultural sources told Times of Malta that Zammit Tabona had failed to report to work from January 2021 until October, when he was moved to Festivals Malta.
While he did not show up to the theatre during office hours, he was still receiving full pay from the national theatre, the sources said.
His lack of appearance in the theatre had raised concern among the theatre staff.
Times of Malta reached out to Zammit Tabona, who was appointed back in 2014, to confirm or deny such statements, to which he replied: “Kindly address your inquiry to the Communication Office Ministry of Culture.”
Questions have been sent to the Culture Ministry.
Earlier this week, Culture Minister Owen Bonnici said he will be meeting the Manoel Theatre and Zammit Tabona later on to discuss future plans for the theatre.
The curious sequence of events started in October when the Manoel Theatre went ahead with plans to replace Zammit Tabona and issued a call for a new artistic director. The advert was withdrawn within hours.
Yet, just a day after withdrawing the advert, a joint statement between Manoel Theatre and Festivals Malta said a new call for an artistic director would be issued “in the coming weeks”.
The statement said Zammit Tabona was to be transferred to Festivals Malta, specifically in charge of the Baroque Festival, which he also had founded.
Since then, no advert has been published, but the situation only became more puzzling. Earlier this month, Zammit Tabona said he has been “completely sidelined” and not involved in the running of the national theatre, despite being under contract until April 2023.
Manoel Theatre CEO Massimo Zammit had said a termination letter had been sent out to Zammit Tabona to inform him he was no longer artistic director.
When contacted again, Zammit repeated that Zammit Tabona has been redeployed to Festivals Malta.
“I can confirm that he has no salary, no remuneration whatsoever from the theatre,” he told Times of Malta.