Joe Cuschieri, the son-in-law of Foreign Affairs Minister George Vella, will be appointed chairman of the Lotteries and Gaming Authority, and will start his new job next week, reliable sources have informed The Malta Independent on Sunday.
Mr Cuschieri was formerly employed with Vodafone Malta as Head of Commercial Operations. In the past, he was also chief operating officer at the Malta Communications Authority.
Mr Cuschieri’s appointment means that the current chairman of the LGA, Mario Galea, will be dismissed.
The sources explained that Mr Vella comes from Minister Chris Cardona’s camp, while Cuschieri is very close to Parliamentary Secretary Edward Zammit Lewis. “The two members of Cabinet are not the closest of friends,” sources said, explaining that Dr Zammit Lewis is close to Prime Minister Joseph Muscat while Dr Cardona is not. In the past, Mr Galea had also been close to former EU Commissioner and PN minister John Dalli.
Mario Galea had been appointed the LGA’s CEO in 2004 but his contract was not renewed in 2008. Sources said that Mr Galea had regarded former Finance Minister Tonio Fenech as being responsible for that, and after living for some time in the US had “come back with a vengeance”. He was appointed LGA chairman by the PL government last May.
However his position was never quite secure, sources explained, and he was closely watched by persons who were recently promoted at the LGA. It seems that Mr Galea was more interested with his multi-million dollar business in the US, Random Consulting.
Sources said that despite losing his chairmanship of the LGA, Mr Galea will still serve as a consultant to Minister Cardona.
LGA official gives dubious replies
Last Sunday, this newspaper ran an article titled “Labour Acolytes ride the gravy train to Las Vegas”, which said that the Maltese LGA delegation to a Las Vegas gaming expo was made up of Labour-leaning individuals who are not specialised in promoting Malta’s gaming potential. The Maltese delegation was made up of Rachel Tua, Alexandra Gatt, Frances Blenheim, Godwin Borg, Mariella Galea and Sharlene Maronese.
Questions sent by this newspaper were answered by Frances Blenheim, who denied that there had been any wrongdoing, and insisted that only the most qualified officials had attended. Ms Blenheim claimed to be writing on behalf of the LGA board. But sources told this newspaper that the board had not been consulted; in fact it did not even meet this week, and no board members had been involved in the matter.
Ms Blenheim said that Alexandra Gatt is “the most experienced Compliance Officer of the LGA, with 10 years extensive experience in all facets of remote gaming licensing. Her experience consists of training all staff and directors in this area of licensing”. But sources said that compliance officers are, essentially, glorified clerks. The LGA has specific employees for promoting gaming, called Licence Relationship Executives. None of these executives attended the Vegas Expo.
She denied that Godwin Borg was a canvasser of Parliamentary Secretary Owen Bonnici, as reported by this paper last Sunday. But our sources asked why Mr Borg had deleted his Facebook account, which clearly showed his political links, as soon as the story was published. Our sources also insisted that Mr Borg is not qualified to promote Malta.
Ms Blenheim also wrote that Mariella Galea and Sharlene Maronese are both LGA inspectors in the land-based gaming sector. Our sources pointed out two factors. One that Malta does not have a land-based sector to promote, since there are no open concessions and the market is full and lotteries are a monopoly. Two, they are inspectors, and not promoters. This paper last week quoted sources saying that Galea and Maronese are well known for their pro-Labour political beliefs. Ms Blenheim did not deny this.
Ms Tua, who is an LGA Board member and not an official, attended because “this was common practice at the LGA,” according to Ms Blenheim. Rachel Tua is also the PL’s equal opportunities officer and an unsuccessful election candidate.
And finally, writing about herself, Ms Blenheim said that she is not a PA to the chairman, but Manager Player Support, with “extensive technical and licensing experience in the remote gaming sector”. Ms Blenheim denied ever being involved in canvassing for any politician or political party. However, sources this week insisted that her partner is “chief canvasser” for Parliamentary Secretary Edward Zammit Lewis. The LGA falls under his remit.
The same sources said that Ms Blenheim was a receptionist when she was appointed manager in 2008 – a position, sources claim, where she could do the ministry’s bidding. A simple Google search reveals multiple customer complaints against her. Sources said that the complaints department has more complaints against itself than about gaming issues since she was put in charge. They also insisted that her role as Manager Player Support does not have anything to do with attracting investment.
Our sources said that the above list does not include one single person fit for the task at hand. All are unqualified. Furthermore, the number of years at the LGA is not related to experience and qualifications. There are senior and more qualified officials in the LGA, but none attended the Vegas expo.
LGA members manning private company stand
Last week, this newspaper also quoted sources saying that during the expo, LGA officials were sometimes seen manning the stand for Random Consulting Ltd, the company owned by current LGA chairman Mario Galea.
Ms Blenheim denied this and insisted: “Random Consulting Ltd did not have a stand registered as an exhibitor. For this reason it is not possible that any LGA employee was ‘manning’ a stand bearing this name.”
However, a simple search on the G2E expo floor plan clearly shows that Random Consulting did have a stand, and was placed a few metres away from the LGA booth. (Picture)
Despite the clear evidence, Ms Blenheim offered to send us a plan of all the stands listed at the expo “for our perusal” and suggested that we check the surveillance tapes from the exhibitors.