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Kurt Sansone
Tourism Minister Francis Zammit Dimech was constrained to appoint an executive chairman for the Tourism Authority, against recommendations to give the executive function to a managing director, because no suitable person was found to fill in the vacancy of a full-time executive managing director.
Contacted by MaltaToday Zammit Dimech said that none of the people who applied for the post of executive managing director “made the grade” and as a consequence he had to appoint an executive chairman.
“In the circumstances I could not leave such an important authority without a top management structure and hence appointed Romwald Lungaro-Mifsud as executive chairman,” the Minister said.
A report drawn up by Deloitte & Touche on reforms necessary to make the tourism authority lean and efficient says that the MTA requires an executive managing director to drive the organisation forward. The report stated that the previous post of chief executive officer was toothless since the authority was saddled with various levels of bureaucracy. In a reformed structure the chairman would have no executive role.
The Tourism Minister also said the appointment of Lungaro-Mifsud is not an interim measure. “It will not preclude us from issuing a vacancy for the post of managing director in the future but it will not happen in the immediate future.
This appointment will not prevent us from issuing a call for applications for other managerial staff in line with the Deloitte report but the chairman will retain an executive role for the time being,” the Minister said.
Mr Lungaro-Mifsud is expecting to take the position of current chairman Chris Grech shortly.
kurt@newsworksltd.com
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