The government has nominated the current head of the Privatisation Unit as the new Planning Authority chair.
Sources said Emanuel Camilleri, an accountant, was nominated after the government’s previous nominee, Anthony Borg, had to be withdrawn after he admitted that he was once offered an envelope with what is believed to be a bribe by a policeman and although he refused it, he had failed to report the case.
Camilleri is due to appear before the parliamentary Public Appointments Committee in the coming weeks.
Although outgoing chairman Vince Cassar is an architect and a planning expert, this is not the first time that an accountant was chosen as PA chairman. Cassar’s predecessor, Austin Walker, was also an accountant.
Long history of public service
Camilleri has a long history of service in the public sector and has been chairman of the Privatisation Unit at the Office of the Prime Minister since 2013. The function of the Privatisation Unit is to conduct the privatisation of a number of public enterprises as prescribed by the government in a correct and efficient manner.
Camilleri was also chairman of the Foundation for Tomorrow’s Schools within the Education Ministry as well as a director general within the Finance Ministry in the 1990s.
He is also an engineer, holds a masters and a doctorate in business administration and is a visiting senior lecturer at the university’s accountancy and public policy departments as well as the Institute of Public Administration.
Times of Malta reported last week how Anthony Borg, the previous nominee, will continue to serve on the Planning Commission where he and two other people take decisions on Outside Development Zone projects and those in urban conservation areas.
Borg had mentioned the alleged bribe offer as he was being grilled by parliament’s Public Appointments Committee. The government immediately withdrew his nomination while Nationalist MP Karol Aquilina went to the police headquarters to report the case himself.
Borg boasts a 45-year career in the public service and has worked at the Planning Authority since its inception. It was within this context that Aquilina asked him whether he had ever witnessed any abuse at the authority.
After a pause, Borg recalled that, about 12 years ago, when he was a case officer, a policeman had gone to him “with an envelope”.
“I immediately walked away and told him to never speak to me again,” Borg told the committee. “I don’t know who he was, and I don’t want to know,” he added.
Asked what he had done about the attempted bribe and whether he had reported the case to his superiors or put it down in writing somehow, Borg said he never followed the case again and did not report it because he felt that refusing the bribe was enough and there was no need to take the case further.
Correction: The article previously stated that Camilleri is a warranted engineer but he does not have a warrant to practice as an engineer.