In his letter (TMID, 15 September), Steve Borg, secretary of the Friends of the National Archives, complained that a recent call for applications for the post of information and records officer at the Broadcasting Authority was completely excluding potential candidates with a diploma in archives and records management.

The letter, however, fails to mention a number of facts, which must have been known to Mr Borg, and which have a direct bearing on this issue.

This call for applications, in fact, had already been issued in November 2007 and, in line with advice given to the Broadcasting Authority by the pertinent authorities, the call had then been open to applicants “in possession of a diploma in archives and records management or its equivalent” and to “students reading for a bachelor’s in library, archives and information studies” who were then in the last year of their course.

However, although there were then a total of 14 potential candidates with such qualifications, only two had applied.

The first-placed of these candidates initially accepted the appointment but changed his mind soon afterwards while the second-placed candidate proposed a number of conditions for her appointment which were unacceptable to the authority and would indeed, presumably, also have been unacceptable to any other employer.

These developments have regrettably led to a significant delay in the filling of this vacancy to the detriment of the authority.

In the light of the above, and since it is understood that there are currently no other potential candidates with the above-mentioned qualifications apart from the ones already indicated above who have clearly either not shown an interest in the post or have refused an appointment, the call for applications which has now been re-issued by the authority stipulates a different set of qualification requirements.

Nonetheless, the authority is prepared to revise these requirements and extend the closing date of the call for applications so that holders of a diploma in archives and records management and students who will be graduating during the current year with a bachelor’s degree in library, archives and information studies will also be in a position to apply for the post.

Dr Kevin Aquilina

Chief Executive

Broadcasting Authority

Hamrun