Eleven people who had been appointed as persons of trust under the previous Nationalist Party administration ended up getting a full-time job with the civil service, the principal permanent secretary, Mario Cutajar, said this morning.

Addressing the media during a press briefing, Mr Cutajar said that the government is working on a definition of what a person of trust should really be so as to avoid abuse in the future.

He also mentioned that changes in the civil service regulations should be concluded and announced by not later than this year.

“We must revise our regulations so as to establish clearer definitions of what is a person of trust, position of trust and direct appointments”, Mr Cutajar added.

Asked whether he thinks there was abuse in the appointment of persons in positions of trust, Mr Cutajar said he didn’t think this was the case while explaining that certain position which fall under ‘domestic help’ also fall under ‘positions of trust’. 

Public service a leader in family friendly measures

Principal Permanent Secretary Mario Cutajar briefed the media with what the Employee Support Programme achieved so far.

He said that this programme makes the civil service possibly the only employer which provides support for family problems that arise.

The ESP has managed to help some 600 employees since its launch and is focused mainly on prevention and support assistance.

“The public service sector aims to give the opportunity to provide employees with necessary balance between work life and private family time,” Mr Cutajar added while describing the public service as a leader in introducing family friendly measures.

The public service is currently conducting an exercise on the core hours of various departments so as to establish new flexible and family friendly measures.

More than 1,000 are currently working on reduced hour’s basis.

Mr Cutajar also spoke about the Centre for Development, Research and Training which has, so far, helped more than 8,000 people and described it as a college to train those in the public sector.

The Public Sector’s vision is based on four principles, Mr Cutajar said; the voice of the stakeholders, creation of policies, delivery in offering services and accountability.