In its role as the country’s foremost employer, the government should be a role model. And that does not only mean in terms of the conditions and remuneration packages it offers but, also, in attracting the best human resources possible while ensuring good value for money. More so, because the funds at its disposal come from taxpayers.

There was a time, and, perhaps, certain restrictions remain, when the civil service was unable to compete with the public sector and could only watch as a brain drain ensued. This state of affairs became more pronounced after the liberalisation process started by the Nationalist administration soon after the 1987 change of government.

One way of going round the rigid public service grades was the setting up of agencies, corporations and quangos, call them what you will, which gave the government more leeway in offering certain pay packages. Then, as often happens, because, as they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions, what was meant to be a way of attracting the best crop gave rise to abuse.

Friends of friends and people in the inner circle or close to the corridors of power soon found themselves enjoying handsome payments and lucrative perks.

Take the recent appointment of the new CEO at Malta Enterprise. The Prime Minister’s former spokesman ended up having access to a pay package that could be twice his former’s boss. This only emerged after Times of Malta filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act to view his contract.

It need not be explained that such requests are not frivolously made out of curiosity but to ensure transparency, accountability and that the government is spending taxpayers’ money wisely. Regrettably, the government often rejects such requests and, worse still, there have been instances, even very recently, where the courts too failed to put the right to know and public interest first.

But back to Malta Enterprise. Here is history repeating itself because a former executive chairman had likewise ended up in the eye of a political controversy under a previous Nationalist government. As it happened, the individual also used to serve as the prime minister’s spokesman.

The present government may have had this background in mind when it appointed the new CEO, arguing the Nationalist Party cannot now say that what was good for the goose is bad for the gander. 

Perhaps, but taxpayers are justified in wondering whether their money is being spent in the best way possible. They cannot be blamed for asking if the new CEO is the best candidate that could be found for the job or whether a better-qualified person could have been hired for that same amount.

Malta Enterprise, the successor of the Malta Development Corporation, is an essential tool in the country’s economic development efforts. Its success or otherwise, which would have a widespread ripple effect on the well-being of the country, of course depends to a very large extent on how those at the helm are able to devise, manage and promote initiatives relating to the economic and social development of Malta in line with government objectives, policies and goals.

There is another serious downside to the practice of giving lucrative jobs to the boys. Qualified and serious executives who could be willing and able to take on such tasks may hesitate stepping into offices that would have been politically contaminated.