Reading the report by the Board of Inquiry, which was appointed to evaluate the events (and responsibilities) that led to the suspension of funds managed by the European Union Programmes Agency (EUPA) in the Ministry of Education, makes sad reading.
The issue is crucial because one primary reason why Malta joined the EU was precisely to benefit from EU funds. And one reason many young people, whatever their political inclination, supported EU membership was precisely so they could benefit from some of the EU funds to study abroad. EU funds are critical for those who do not come from a family that can afford to send its children to study abroad.
The report makes sad reading because it shows that faults were detected in the EUPA system as far back as 2006 but were not corrected. Both the agency and its national authority, the Ministry for Education, were informed as long ago as last year that the funds would be suspended but seem to have run around like headless chickens instead of tackling the issue head on. They also seem to have, for some reason, kept the problem to themselves rather than tackled it with the crucial government officials, especially the Representative in Brussels.
The report is very detailed on what happened inside the agency, the ministry and the government. But there is a wider background to this and if we use the three people whose positions were declared ‘untenable’ and who have since resigned, it is not because we want to inflict further pain on them but because we want to show that the rot goes deeper. To do so, however, we have to use them as a symbol of whatever is going wrong with the government.
Let us take them one by one, starting from the lower placed officer – Mauro Pace Parascandalo, who was National Coordinator, EUPA, hence, the kingpin of the programme.
Mr Pace Parascandalo, who by the way is a Knight of St Lazarus, graduated as a teacher of physical education but spent some time working with the Red Cross EU Office, preparing programmes that would manage EU funds. Later on, he moved to the Education Division where he was involved in health and safety education, preparing schools for the pandemic until, in 2007, he was appointed EUPA National Coordinator. While Dr Simon Busuttil, who visited EUPA offices in 2007, expressed satisfaction that the agency was up and running, MP Carmelo Abela asked the minister quite pointed questions on how and why Mr Pace Parascandalo was appointed but, since the minister was absent, the substitute, then Health Minister Louis Deguara, could not answer him, especially with regard to whether the post was publicly advertised.
A quite different background reveals what may have been even more relevant to his appointment: Mr Pace Parascandalo, for a number of years, was a PN councillor in the Zurrieq local council. That may explain why he was appointed by then minister Louis Galea.
Next comes Robert Tabone, Director, Policy Development and Programme Implementation. Mr Tabone too comes from a political background. He is the son of former Gozo Minister and Speaker Anton Tabone. He was elected mayor of Victoria in March 2006. In the successive election, in 2009, he was pipped at the post by 10 votes and in August 2009 he resigned. By then, he had already been appointed to his EUPA post (on 17 July). According to KullHadd of 22 August, Mr Tabone had been quite angry that he had not succeeded in obtaining the most votes in the local council election.
On to the next higher official, Dr Christopher Bezzina. In our opinion, Dr Bezzina is the least liable of the three who were asked to resign, since he was only appointed in February 2009, although the report makes it quite clear that it ascribes the muddle in tackling the funding issue also to him.
Dr Bezzina’s CV states that he occupied the position of Director for Quality Assurance in the Directorate for Quality & Standards in Education, in the Ministry of Education, Culture, Youth & Sport. Dr Bezzina is a member of the Faculty of Education at the University of Malta. He also worked as teacher and consultant both in Malta as well as in other countries like Cyprus, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Sweden, Seychelles and the United States. In 2004, Dr Bezzina was a Fulbright Scholar in the State University of New York at Buffalo. He is also a visiting professor at the University of Bologna.
With a CV like that and a list of conferences and speeches delivered as long as your arm, it is clear that Dr Bezzina is an academic who excels in his own field.
The problem, as evidenced from the whole report is that membership of the EU and accession to EU funds require strict management skills and none of the three seem to have had any. Apart from Dr Bezzina, the only qualification that seems common in Mr Tabone’s and Mr Pace Parascandalo’s case is a past militancy as PN councillors. This shows the validity of the key PN commitment prior to the last election, that membership of government boards and appointments will be made after a public call for expressions of interest – a commitment that caused hilarity in the PN ranks after the election and which has not been implemented. The circumstances surrounding the appointments of both Mr Tabone and Mr Pace Parascandalo seem to have been dictated more by partisan commitments to jobs for the boys than by considerations of merit. Nor does there seem to have been any pressure to have them learn management or to conform to the EU template.
Towards the end, the report hints that a similar exercise, as done by the Internal Audit and Investigations Department at OPM, should be carried out in all areas and agencies that deal with EU funds. Having struggled so much to get into the EU, it would be a crime to lose the funds that we can access, that are waiting for us.
The government, at all levels, must ensure it gets the best people to staff its posts, rather than spend its time doling out jobs for the boys.