A spokesperson from the Office of the Prime Minister has confirmed that a new Central Bank of Malta (CBM) Governor will be nominated in the coming days.
This newsroom revealed through government sources that senior Cabinet members, such as Deputy Prime Minister Louis Grech, Education and Employment Minister Evarist Bartolo and Finance Minister Edward Scicluna have been pushing for the nomination of Rene Saliba, currently chairman of the Malta Fiscal Advisory Council.
Deputy CBM Governor Alfred Mifsud was the Cabinet’s original nomination, however after allegations of bribery emerged he requested not to be considered for the post to be vacated by Prof. Josef Bonnici (above) at the end of the week.
Mr Mifsud (below) was nominated by Cabinet to fill the post of Central Bank Governor on 1 July, pending European Central Bank (ECB) approval – ultimately he would have been reporting to the ECB as Governor.
Currently the CBM Governor is Josef Bonnici, whose term expires on Saturday 1 July. He was nominated in 2011, taking up the post on 1 July 2011. Standard practice throughout EU euro-zone countries is that governments announce its nomination some months – at the very least weeks – before the outgoing Governor’s term comes to an end.
When the story broke of Mr Mifsud’s government nomination, Journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia quoted Mr Mifsud's former partner Anna Zelbst, where she alleged that prominent businessman Ronnie Demajo, formerly of M Demajo group, went to their home at least three times between 1996 and 1998 and gave Mr Mifsud Lm50,000 in cash each time.
This allegedly happened while Mr Mifsud was chairman of Mid Med bank, and was pushing for the installation of a new American banking software called Eastpoint, through which Mr Demajo and M Demajo group were the point of contact.
When allegations surfaced, Mr Mifsud repeatedly denied these allegations, stating that the new banking software at the time was decided upon by a board, through a transparent tender process. After being contacted by this newsroom, he also said that he has never received any money from Mr Demajo, nor any expensive gifts.
“He may have sent me a bottle of whiskey or wine, I don’t remember. I never received any expensive gifts from him,” he said.
In two separate statements, Mr Mifsud denied allegations, and blamed them on a “failed relationship” with his former partner. In his second statement, made last week, Mr Mifsud announced that he filed a defamation complaint with the police against his former partner.
Ms Zelbst has since been summoned by the Economics Crime Unit of the local police force to provide a statement on the allegations she has levelled against her former partner.
This newsroom had sent questions to the OPM asking them whether they will be asking for the suspension of Mr Mifsud pending the police investigation, to which they replied that it is not within their remit. It is up to the CBM Board to take such a decision.