PN MP David Thake blasted the appointment of teenage local councillor Carlos Zarb to the role of Governor on the FinanceMalta board of governors, noting that this is happening while all of Malta is fearing the outcome of the Moneyval assessment.

Carlos Zarb, born in 2001, is a local councillor representing the Labour Party on the St. Paul’s Bay local council and is a member of the current executive leadership of the party’s youth-wing Forum Zghazagh Laburisti. Zarb was elected to the St. Paul's Bay local council in 2019 at the age of 17, obtaining the second most first count votes on the locality.  However, he could not take on the Deputy Mayor role due to his age at the time.

A short bio on FinanceMalta’s website shows that he was appointed as Governor on the FinanceMalta Board of Governors in June 2020. His bio reads that Zarb is planning on obtaining a degree in Law from the University of Malta. 

FinanceMalta, a non-profit public-private initiative, was set up to promote Malta as an international business and financial centre within, as well as outside, Malta. It's website bio states that it aims to "bring together and harnesses the resources of the industry and government to ensure Malta maintains a modern and effective legal, regulatory and fiscal framework in which the financial services sector can continue to grow and prosper."

Its Board of Governors - headed by Chairman Rudolph Psaila - is equally represented by the private sector through its founding associations and by the government. 

FinanceMalta's website states that Zarb is one of the four people appointed to the board by the government.  The other three people are Clive Azzopardi, Marvin Zammit and Josianne Cascun Montebello.

“He is 19 years old.  A member of FZL and he’s got his A-Levels.  They made him a director on FinanceMalta’s board.  And all of Malta is afraid of Moneyval…”, Thake said in a Facebook post.

The post and the appointment garnered a significant reaction, with one comment noting how the appointment was unfair on other university graduates, while others commented on Zarb’s age and his lack of qualifications in the financial sector.

Tourism Minister Clayton Bartolo also reacted to the post, stating that Thake had chosen to dirty a person’s name on the simply basis that he is a Labourite.

“Thake does not know that the law which governs the entity FinanceMalta states that on there has to be a youth on the said board”, Bartolo said.

He said that Thake’s declaration simply continues to prove that the PN sees youths as numbers and nothing more.

A statement by the Labour Party echoed what the Minister said, saying that the PN still believes that youths are nothing more than an “accessory to use on stage of on a billboard.”

In contrast, the PL said that in past years they had shown great faith in youths and the party noted that every time they were granted an opportunity, they had risen to the occasion and shown that they can contribute to the country.

“David Thake’s attitude, who on social media attacked a youth who he says cannot contribute because he is 19 years old, reveals what Bernard Grech’s PN really believes”, the statement reads.

 

The party said that for Bernard Grech, David Thake and “the PN’s establishment”, a person cannot serve in a public institution because they are 19 years old.