Mario Cutajar, the Cabinet Secretary and the government’s Principal Permanent Secretary, has added Heritage Malta to his responsibilities following his appointment as an executive member of the Board of Directors of the government’s heritage agency.

The move came a few weeks after Mr Cutajar, a former employee of Heritage Malta, won a case in front of the Employment Commission which found that he suffered political discrimination when in 2008 his headship at the agency was not renewed by the then board of directors.

Asked to explain his appointment as executive member of the board despite the fact that all the other members, including the chairman, have no executive role, Mr Cutajar said his new role “is not only limited to his attendance to board meetings but also specifically to oversee projects related to Heritage Malta”.

Although the role of executive chairman in government appointed boards has become a norm under the current administration, no other government agency has given any of its board members executive powers.

Asked to state whether he is receiving extra remuneration for his new role at Heritage Malta, over and above his remuneration package as Principal Permanent Secretary and cabinet secretary, Mr Cutajar did not reply.

Mr Cutajar, a former deputy general secretary of the General Workers Union, resigned from the post in 2002 following a clash with the then union leadership.

After returning to the public service in different posts, Labour appointed him Principal Permanent Secretary and Cabinet Secretary as soon as it returned to power in 2013.

Against practice, he had instructed all the then permanent secretaries to resign and appointed new ones in all ministries with few exceptions.

Author of various history books about Labour and its former leader Dom Mintoff, Mr Cutajar occupied posts as a Labour Party official and used to work in the private secretariat of both prime ministers Dom Mintoff and Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici.

For a short stint, he was also employed by Glenn Bedingfield when the letter was an MEP.

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