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Gilbert Calleja
The University’s procedures to determine long-term leave for its staff that are given political appointments, as well as who these people are, remains a mystery.
Questions have remained unanswered about who are the 26 staff members to benefit from this ‘scheme’, for which there is no fixed procedure which determines how academics and other staff at Tal-Qroqq are granted long leave of absence. The rector’s secretary, Angela Tabone, has told MaltaToday that she could not divulge the names of the staff on political leave.
“Due to data protection it is not possible to say who the members of staff concerned are,” she said.
Requests for long-term leave of a year or more are considered by the 26-person University Council, which has 13 members directly appointed by the government. “Each request is considered on its own merits and is usually granted”, Patricia Camilleri, the university’s communications officer, said.
On a different plane, sabbatical leave is given to lecturers and higher grade academic members who have served for six continuous years and want to focus on their scholarly research as is standard procedure in all universities. The academics concerned are bound to return to service for at least another year upon completion of the sabbatical period.
However, less clear is the procedure applied when members of staff are given political or other appointments which require them to work elsewhere. Among the most publicly known, there are the Nationalist Party’s secretary general Joe Saliba. Others include former minister Josef Bonnici who is now at the European Court of Auditors, Arnold Cassola who works as secretary general of the European Greens and has now decided to leave the local political scene to contest the Italian election, and Vicki Ann Cremona, who left her post as lecturer in theatre studies to be Malta’s ambassador in Paris.
gcalleja@mediatoday.com.mt
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