The nurses’ union boss is facing two separate investigations over his earnings as the amounts of money paid to him in overtime and on-call allowances have triggered suspicions over the hours claimed.

Paul Pace, president of the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses (MUMN), is being investigated by the Permanent Commission Against Corruption and the police’s Financial Crimes Investigation Department (FCID), Times of Malta can confirm.

While the FCID investigation has been ongoing since the end of summer, the corruption commission probe was opened a few weeks ago. Several government officials are being questioned in both investigations.

In September, the Public Service Commission found Pace was paid more than he deserved for overtime he claimed to have worked at his full-time job. He was suspended from work for five days and ordered to refund the money.

Pace insists the overpayment was simply a human error that amounted to just €215.

But a parliamentary question in October revealed he may have claimed far more hours of overtime than he could have possibly worked, government sources told Times of Malta.

'Suspicious' earning revealed in parliamentary reply

Pace’s “suspicious” earnings were revealed in a reply Health Minister Chris Fearne gave to PN MP Albert Buttigieg.

Fearne tabled in parliament the amounts paid to Pace in overtime and on-call allowances every year since 2012.

The amounts reveal that over several years, Pace appeared to have clocked an “exorbitant” number of hours at his full-time job as a charge nurse at Mount Carmel Hospital.

In 2022, for example, he was paid €21,387 for overtime work, which equates to an average of €411 per week.

During the same year he was paid €10,861 in on-call allowances on the same job, which means an average of €208 a week.

Added to the normal hours of his normal duty roster, the total number of hours he claimed to have worked for or at Mount Carmel Hospital last year is far more than he could possibly have, government sources said.

Pattern repeated throughout other years

The pattern seems to have been repeated throughout several other years.

The suspicion over the generous number of hours Pace claims to have spent on his full-time job was further heightened as sources insist he works at the MUMN offices or on union matters on most days while also doing work as a member of the MCESD and while presiding over meetings of the Maltese unions forum – For.U.M.

Furthermore, between 2015 and 2019 Pace was also employed as a consultant for then-health minister Konrad Mizzi – a contract which paid him €15,000 annually for 15 hours of work every week. In the contract he also agreed to a clause binding him to work beyond those hours if need be.

Although he had left the MUMN during that period, he still clocked an average of €17,000 worth of overtime hours and €9,000 worth of on-call hours every year at his Mount Carmel full-time job.

Pace could not be reached for comment and Times of Malta was unable to confirm how many hours he claimed to have worked on his full-time job in total.