People who held positions of trust with the government in the last legislature had their contracts terminated at the end of the term and the process of drafting new contracts for such privileged state employees is underway, according to several ministers who answered parliamentary questions tabled by Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi this week.

Azzopardi had asked several ministers to list the positions of trust within their respective ministries as well as in state entities and departments under their remit, to which he received the carbon copy reply that the "contracts of persons of trust and of positions of trust have expired with the end of the last legislature and at the moment the process to establish new contracts is underway".

The number of people employed by the government in a position of trust, meaning that they were appointed directly by the government without a call for applications or interviews, had become a bone of contention after reports by this newspaper.

Following the filing of Freedom of Information requests with every Ministry and Parliamentary Secretariat, it was revealed that the grand total of such people had been a whopping 542.

At 112, the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) was, by far, the Ministry with the largest complement of people in positions of trust. A total of 50 people in positions of trust were hired without a call for applications under the OPM's International Conferences 2015 Unit, tasked with organising the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting and the Valletta Summit on Migration.

Two estate keepers at Girgenti Palace and Villa Francia have also been given positions of trust and are tasked with "House-keeping duties at Girgenti/Villa Francia". Eleven positions in the OPM's Government Customer Care Unit were also listed.

Across the board, positions of trust listed by Ministries ran the full gamut - from cleaners, estate keepers, a crate-washing service coordinator, the ever-famous dog handler, a maintenance/crane and forklift operator, and a day-care centre cleaner, to the commandant of the police academy, top brass at government authorities and chiefs of staff.