Various sources at PBS who spoke to this newspaper said the candidate who turned down the post is the acting head of the Malta-EU Information Centre Carmel Attard.
When contacted on Wednesday, Mr Attard would neither confirm nor deny that he had applied for a job at PBS. “I don’t think I can discuss my private affairs with a newspaper,” Mr Attard said.
“I am still acting head of MIC,” he added.
The Malta Independent on Sunday also spoke to PBS chief executive Andrew Psaila on Friday, who was abroad attending a conference and could not give us his comments.
The three other managers have been chosen. According to our sources, Sylvana Cristina was appointed Manager Programming (which includes archives), Costantino Abela – Manager Operations and Stephen Azzopardi – Manager Corporate Services.
Meanwhile, the internal interviews carried out with existing PBS staff for the non-managerial posts have been concluded, except for one.
The interviews were conducted by the chief executive, the managers of those particular posts, a representative of MIMCOL, the holding company for all goverment-owned enterprises, and a representative from MISCO, a company which deals with recruitment.
Since the post of Manager News has not been filled, veteran broadcaster Lawrence Mizzi was asked to sit on the selection board (interviews) for the newsroom posts , sources said.
PBS employees who spoke to The Malta Independent on Sunday complained that they were given very short notice to attend the interview, some within a few hours.
Moreover, employees said they were called for the interview by phone rather than through a letter, which is standard procedure at PBS.
Because of the delay in the selection process, the early retirement schemes offered under the agreement signed between the GWU and the goverment on 24 April cannot be finalised.
The agreement stipulates that the schemes will remain open till five days after the results of the interviews are known.
PBS employees who are taking the retirement schemes complained to The Malta Independent on Sunday that the process is bogged down by the delays.
A total of 46 employees have applied for the early retirement schemes. Only 18, who stopped working on 31 May, were granted early retirement.
Some have already found new jobs and are eager to leave PBS.
However, other sources at PBS pointed out that the process was scheduled to be concluded by the end of July, as was already reported by this newspaper on 6 June.
At the end of the whole process, PBS will have 64 employees as against the 178 it had up to last April.