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Gilbert Calleja
The University of Malta’s pro-rector Profs Charles Farrugia says he will “investigate” into matters concerning university employees on long-term leave who allegedly take up political posts.
Profs Farrugia this week said he was not aware a lab officer of the university, out on long-term leave since 2004, was working with a private company owned by the Nationalist Party.
Pio Saliba, the brother of Nationalist Party secretary-general Joe Saliba, works at the PN’s travel agency Eurotours, and like 25 other members of the university staff has his job at university guaranteed when he decides to return back to his post.
The pro-rector however says little about the peculiarity of a university employee having his job on hold while working at a private enterprise: “I don’t know what to say,” Farrugia said.
The university appears to have no policy on who benefits from long-term leave. It refuses to disclose the identity and conditions of employees who take on political posts, but who still have a right to return to their jobs once their political service is over, citing the Data Protection Act. Its secrecy is compounded by the fact that those who are given long-term leave from their jobs are not even in political posts.
The grounds over which Pio Saliba has been allowed long-term leave to work with a commercial enterprise remain debatable when contrasted with other appointments, such as theatre studies lecturer Vicky Ann Cremona, who has been on long-term leave since her appointment as ambassador to France in March 2005.
Saliba has confirmed he is employed with the private company but would not comment further, saying he did not want to compromise his pending application for long-term leave.
Although Pio Saliba has been absent from Tal-Qroqq and working at the PN’s travel agency for the last couple of years, he still holds on to his job as a lab officer.
A regular contributor to the ‘Destinations’ section in the PN’s maltarightnow.com news portal, Saliba was also a former Nationalist councillor in the Haz-Zebbug local council, chairing its town heritage board. He was not re-elected in the 2005 round of elections.
The procedures applied for members of staff who are given political or other appointments which require them to work elsewhere remains unclear. Among the most publicly known are former minister Josef Bonnici who is now at the European Court of Auditors and Arnold Cassola who worked as secretary general of the European Greens, and has been elected to the Italian parliament and intends to hold on to his university post. Joe Saliba is also on long-term leave from the university, where he worked as precincts officer before being elected to the PN’s executive committee and appointed secretary-general.
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