PBS directors to appoint independent inquiry into John Bundy procurement breach

The PBS board of directors – who have already passed a vote of no confidence in Bundy – have approached independent professionals to take up the inquiry

The Public Broadcasting Services’ board of directors will appoint an ad hoc inquiry to determine CEO John Bundy’s culpability in an alleged breach of procurement rules.

MaltaToday is in a position to confirm that the directors – who have already passed a vote of no confidence in Bundy – have approached independent professionals to take up the inquiry.

The inquiry will establish the extent to which PBS procurement rules were breached on Bundy’s watch, when an unprecedented eight-year car leasing contract was signed without any vetting from the procurement manager.

READ MORE John Bundy's hush-hush €500,000 car leasing deal for PBS

It will also provide an independent avenue for ascertaining whether Bundy should be sacked, after Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said this week it was up to the PBS board to take that decision.

The €500,000 car deal, which included cars for both Bundy as CEO, and also the PBS’s former head of news Natalino Fenech – who since his departure in 2013, has been seconded to the University of Malta – was never green-lit by the board.

The issue was only raised at board level back on 18 January, 2017, when Bundy referred to the PBS car fleet. “[He] noted that the cars were now old. He had sought advice on whether to buy new cars or go for leasing, and found that it was cheaper to go for leasing.”

Bundy was said to have used a procurement method only employed for minor purchases, by obtaining three quotations from leasing suppliers. The person actually responsible for procurement, corporate services manager Edmund Tabone, was completely side-lined.

Last week MaltaToday revealed that the PBS’s board of directors had actually voted on a motion of no confidence against Bundy.

The secret vote delivered a unanimous verdict of no confidence, which was communicated to chairman Tonio Portughese. But ultimately, it is minister Owen Bonnici who would have to assume responsibility for Bundy’s dismissal. Bundy was installed in his position without any formal call for applications for CEO, after the departure of Anton Attard, on a four-year contract.

In their letter to Portughese, the board said they had convened to discuss the way Bundy “had, on several occasions, ignored the board of directors and taken decisions which required the approval of the board”.

The board said it considered Bundy’s attitude towards the PBS directors as one that showed a lack of respect.

“Worse than that, it shows a lack of awareness of what the relationship should be between a CEO and the board of directors, which in terms of the law have enormous personal responsibility for everything that happens in the company.”

The directors said they were also faced with legal threats from companies when they attempted to reverse Bundy’s “arbitrary decisions”.

“These decisions were presented to the board as a fait accompli, and the directors were faced with threats of legal action against them personally and the company.”

The directors said they could no longer tolerate the situation and declared they had no faith in Bundy.