An independent review of the public sector’s human resources should take place, and those found to be working superfluous jobs should be seconded to the private sector, President of the Malta Chamber of Commerce Marisa Xuereb told The Malta Independent on Sunday.

Earlier this week, the Malta Employers’ Association warned that workers are already jumping ship from the private to the public sector, as the pre-election “talent drain” begins to take hold. At the beginning of the month, the same association called for a ban on the government carrying out any public sector recruitment up to six months prior to a general election, unless it is in critical professions.

Asked whether the Malta Chamber of Commerce agrees with this proposal, Xuereb said yes, in principle.

“In theory it makes sense, but in practice, nobody knows when six months prior to an election would be.”

“We know that an election must take place by next year, but we don’t know when it will take place. We don’t know if we are already within that six-month period. Normally elections are not announced six months before (...) We agree with it in principle. If we are approaching an election and we know that there is a tendency for candidates to push their candidature by providing opportunities for employment in the public sector, that possibility needs to be, as much as possible, eliminated.”

She said that there is a trend for people to prefer a job in the public sector, even if it is for less pay than in the private sector, “as the assumption is that the other conditions would be better in terms of what is actually expected of them.”

She said that there are those in the public sector who do the jobs of three people, working extremely hard, but then there are others who do very little.

Asked whether she has any proposals to deal with the situation, she said: “We believe that the public sector should undergo an independent exercise, not handled by the public sector but rather by third parties, to take stock of its human resources and check if there are any excesses. Those in superfluous jobs could then be seconded to the private sector, she said.

Xuereb spoke of another concern, saying that the country feels as though it is constantly in election mode and has been that way since the Panama Papers scandal broke. “The feeling is that candidates are constantly campaigning. There is a continuous feeling that we are in the middle of an election campaign all the time.”

In her personal capacity, she said that she believes Sundays should become a no politics day, meaning that the current Sunday political speeches and interviews on party media would stop taking place. This would reduce election fatigue.

Rumours have been making the rounds for a while that an early election could take place. Asked whether it would be wise for an early election to be called due to the Covid-19 pandemic, she said that the Covid-19 situation is now a secondary issue.

“With Covid, we have reached a plateau, and I believe it will be with us for a number of years. We have a very high vaccination rate and till now, we have variants that we know about and can manage. I don’t think that life would be much better in the next year or two. So I don’t think that the decision as to whether or not to hold an election at this time is so much dependent on Covid-19.”

“There are other issues that are more strategic in terms of when to hold an election. At the moment we have a Prime Minister who still needs to pass through an electoral test, and so it will be a very important election for him. There is the FATF grey listing, the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder, the public inquiry, which all cast shadows over a number of people in politics and this is something that is to be factored in. The media has, since Daphne Caruana Galizia was murdered, become more political in its nature. Daphne was on her own in the political sphere, but since her murder, many elements in the media are going into that sphere. The landscape, strategically, is complicated.”

She said that what is required for Malta to address shortfalls, such as those identified by the FATF, may also have political implications and require the introduction of certain things which, politically, would be difficult to do just prior to an election.

“Having an early election would give the government that would be elected a free hand to implement those less popular changes that are required. But then you also have the reality that the current government has been accused of not having fulfilled its mandate to the full in the previous term and if they do it again, they would be criticised for not making it to the end of their mandate again. So there are arguments both for and against an early election.”