Director suspended on corruption claims gets new directorship at same ministry

Gozo Ministry Permanent Secretary John Borg has approved the nomination of Mark Formosa as the ministry’s new Rural Gozo Director even though he had suspended the same individual a few years ago over corruption claims.

Sources at the Gozo Ministry have told The Shift that Borg, the ministry’s permanent secretary since 2013, had to reverse his 2017 decision and re-appoint Formosa after claims the ministry made against its former director of projects turned out to have been untrue.

In July 2017, just a few days after Justyne Caruana took office as Gozo Minister, Borg suspended Formosa, architect Angelo Portelli and another employee over an investigation he said was ongoing into possible ministry road tender corruption.

While a police investigation and magisterial inquiry had been ordered, the permanent secretary’s move was interpreted as a ‘settlement of political debts’ between the new Gozo Minister Justyne Caruana and her predecessor and political rival Anton Refalo.

The police investigation yielded no results. It was led by Caruana’s then-husband Silvio Valletta, the head of the CID. The Police Commissioner at the time declared Valletta did not have a conflict of interest.

Despite various complaints and legal action taken by the three suspended employees, who were never charged in court, they were never reinstated to their former positions and were given alternative public employment outside of the Gozo Ministry.

Following a recent new call for directors at the Gozo Ministry, Borg will now once again have Formosa as one of his right-hand men, heading the Rural Gozo directorate.

Borg, described by colleagues as a ‘yes man’, has not answered The Shift’s questions on the matter.

Other directors at the Gozo Ministry have been treated quite differently by Borg.

This was the case last November when Director General Vicky Xuereb, Director Joseph Cutajar and official Joseph Xuereb – all of whom are known to be close to current Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri – were arraigned in court and accused of involuntary homicide, through negligence at the place of work, of a 52-year-old government employee from Xewkija.

Instead of following protocol, since public service rules dictate that any government employee facing criminal charges is to be immediately suspended on half pay, Borg wrote to the Public Service Commission to request an exception.

According to Borg, the suspension of the three colleagues was not in the public interest since they were only accused of involuntary manslaughter and had “exemplary conduct”.

This contrasts sharply with Borg’s actions on the 2017 corruption claims and sources at the ministry are putting the contrasting attitudes down to the cases’ respective parties’ proximity, or lack thereof, to the minister of the day.