Former FIAU official Jonathan Ferris has received a long-awaited reply to the Judicial Protest he filed after the Government failed to grant him whistleblower status, despite what he says were clear assurances by the Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and Justice Minister Owen Bonnici to the European Parliamentarians.
The former FIAU officer and ex-police inspector had filed a judicial protest two weeks ago against the Prime Minister, the Minister for Justice, the Attorney General and External Whistleblower Unit officer Philip Massa saying the Unit had repeatedly moved the goalposts to derail his application for Whistleblower protection.
Ferris, a former police inspector with the Economic Crimes Unit, had been fired from a new post at the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit not long after joining the unit. He claims that this happened because he dug too deep in his investigations into government corruption allegations. Ferris insists that the termination of his employment was illegal and abusive and the result of ministerial interference.
He had later filed a case before the Industrial Tribunal, arguing unfair dismissal and in January, had filed a judicial protest against the Attorney General, demanding whistleblower status which he claims was being unreasonably withheld.
But in a counter-protest filed last week, both the Prime Minister and Bonnici denied being the appropriate defendants in the matter, while the External Whistleblower Unit Chief simply said that Ferris did not qualify for protection, as he "failed to act in line with the dispositions of Protection of the Whistleblower Act."
Contacted for their views, Ferris' legal team expressed polite disdain for the Government's repetition of their stonewalling tactics, in direct contrast to the way they had spoken to the MEPs. "Mr Ferris will not be stopping here" they promised.