Mystery Malta MedAir consultant revealed as former Air Malta acting CEO

The Shift Team - 14. March. 2023

The former Air Malta senior executive who was put on a three-year Malta MedAir contract worth €157,000 per annum in 2018 by disgraced former minister Konrad Mizzi was former Air Malta acting CEO Joseph Galea, The Shift can report.

Galea’s unorthodox contract had been highlighted last December in a National Audit Office examination of the fully owned government company, which was established as a possible alternative to the beleaguered national airline.

While the NAO, in line with standard practice, did not name the “former senior Air Malta official”, Finance Minister Clyde Caruana has also refused to name the individual.

Caruana eventually made the consultant’s contract available following a freedom of information request filed by The Shift but the ministry, claiming data protection, redacted the individual’s name.

Further investigations have established the person no one wants to name was, in fact, former Air Malta acting CEO Joseph Galea. The Shift understands Galea was given the Malta MedAir consultancy in 2018 to make way for a new CEO at Air Malta.

Through the contract, Galea advised the new single-aircraft airline’s CEO – former Malta Tourism Authority CEO Paul Bugeja – on a 27-hour-a-week basis. He was paid a €125,000 basic salary plus perks that included a €25,000 performance bonus, a fully expensed car, health insurance and communication and fuel allowances.

Galea’s contract also entitled him to six club class airline tickets a year on any flight operated by Air Malta and another four tickets each in economy class for members of his immediate family.

An extract from Galea’s LinkedIn page showing his private business ventures and his deployments at Malta MedAir and Air Malta

Galea’s consultancy was to elapse in September 2021 but he was still acting as Malta MedAir consultant until at least October of last year. It is not known whether Galea is still providing Malta MedAir with consultancy services.

To fund the hefty consultancy, a unique salary-sharing agreement had been struck between the Tourism Ministry, Malta MedAir and the Malta Tourism Authority – all of which were under Konrad Mizzi’s political remit at the time.

Malta MedAir – which The Shift revealed last summer could be wound down along with Air Malta in the coming months – is chaired by the Public Broadcasting Services executive chairman Mark Sammut, who is also refusing to reveal his own publicly-funded PBS contract.

Minister Clyde Caruana is now politically responsible for both Air Malta and Malta MedAir.

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wenzu

3 years ago

the MLP gives “filth” and “corruption” completely new defintions.

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Bamboccu

3 years ago

What about the Airmalta Aviation Services Ltd.
The directors are still being paid for nothing who are these ppl?

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Joseph

3 years ago

This Thursday we must go to Valletta again to keep the pressure on and build on the momentum that has now empowered the people who are being robbed, and wish for a normal country!

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Thomas

3 years ago

Well, there’s at least someone who must have some level of professional experience, one would assume.

It is very striking how the PL is always dishing out CEO jobs and all the extras and allowances that come with it, but when asked to give explanations, always go to conceal the truth. Must be very embarrassing to them to admit that they install people in leading positions who have no professional background for the job they are taking on. But never mind that, it is all just about the salary that matters, as it very often comes across that way. From ‘Partit Laburisti’ to ‘parti de liaison’, because the latter is what counts in the end, not the actual work delivered. It also sheds some light on why Air Malta is in it’s present situation.