The Council of the Malta Chamber of Commerce and Enterprise publicly urged the government to appoint a Chief Executive Officer at the Malta Tourism Authority (MTA) and to address similar situations in other public authorities and organisations.

The situation at the MTA is that it has been without a CEO for over eight months. The Chamber’s Council is of the opinion that considering the much needed turn-around which occurred in this sector during the course of last year, this important post needs to be filled to ensure that such a turn-around is indeed sustainable and not dependent on one or two key people. Moreover, the MTA needs to have a CEO for the sake of continuity and stability no matter what changes are carried out at any time on a political level.

A similar case is that of the National Statistics Office which has remained without a Director-General since the resignation of the incumbent early last year.

The Chamber’s Council insists that any organisation needs to make a clear and unequivocal distinction between the non-Executive Chairman and the CEO in order to function properly according to sound principles of management and good governance. Thus, a different angle to the same problem is the instance where the Chairman and CEO/Director-General are the one and same person. This is currently the case at the Malta Communications Authority and the Malta Housing Authority, amongst others. This dual role of one person can lead to ambiguity and lack of transparency on the roles in question. The Chamber’s Council urges the competent authorities to take those necessary steps to rectify these situations.