Finance Minister refuses to publish MFSA CEO’s ‘handover’ agreement

Finance Minister Clyde Caruana is steadfastly refusing to publish the contract given to former Malta Financial Services Authority chief executive officer Joseph Gavin for a €65,000 six-month “handover”.

The Shift has revealed how Gavin, who had stepped down from the MFSA’s top spot last summer after being absent from work for over a month, was still being paid some €11,000 a month by the financial services regulator.

Questioned in Parliament once again by Opposition MP Jerome Caruana Cilia over the state of affairs, Caruana once again brushed off a request for the contract to be published.

All Caruana would confirm was that Gavin had been engaged by the authority as a consultant for the period between September 2022 and March 2023 – information the finance minister had already given out.

Caruana said, “Mr Gavin was engaged to provide consultancy on statutory functions, for a handover, and for the conclusion of various initiatives – including strategic advice linked to Malta’s strategy for financial services, a number of initiatives on licensing and authorisation, and various advice on supervisory requirements.”

Caruana, however, once again ignored the direct request in Caruana Cilia’s parliamentary question for the contract in question to be published.

Gavin’s contract will expire on 31 March 2023 and he will have been paid close to €65,000 for those services over six months.

The Shift recently reported how neither the MFSA was in a position to publish the most recent arrangement with Gavin, citing data protection.

Stating that his original contract was terminated by the MFSA, the authority informed The shift that it had entered into a back-to-back service agreement with the retired CEO “to provide advisory services in relation to the statutory functions of the Authority and in order to provide an orderly handover and conclusions of various initiatives”.

For that task, which is part and parcel of his original assignment as CEO, Gavin is receiving €11,000 a month, around €2,000 a month less than what he was being paid when he was on the job full-time before retiring.

The Shift is reliably informed that the arrangement had been demanded by Caruana in order to force Gavin out of the position.

The MFSA has not yet issued a vacancy to fill the now-vacant position of the former general counsel for the Central Bank of Ireland, who had originally been engaged on a €162,000-a-year contract that included a €30,000 allowance for his accommodation in Malta.