Labour pollster Vince Marmara gets three new government direct orders

Labour pollster Vince Marmara has been handed three new direct orders to provide surveys to different government entities.

According to information published in the Government Gazette, the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA), headed by the prime minister’s former legal assistant in his private legal office, Ryan Pace, tasked Marmara with providing an analysis of the employment sector in the gaming industry, for a fee of €10,000.

Until 2022, Marmara was on a seven-year, €4,251 monthly retainer for unspecified “research and consultancy services” at the MGA until The Shift revealed the contract was irregularly renewed. Marmara, whose full-time job is lecturing at the University, received €370,000 in payments from the MGA.

Two other surveys have been handed to Marmara in the past weeks.

The Gozo Regional Development Authority – an agency financed by the Gozo Ministry – tasked Marmara with extracting data related to Gozo from a survey he conducts yearly for the Office of President George Vella, known as the State of the Nation. For this information, the GRDA paid Marmara a €5,000 ‘sponsorship’ fee.

Also, Norma Saliba, the former PBS Head of News controversially given a new government job after she was forced to leave PBS, tasked Marmara to conduct a survey on the use of the Maltese language.

Saliba contracted Marmara by direct order as part of her role at the Centre for the Maltese Language, a new government organisation set up without any consultation with the National Council for the Maltese Language.

It is not yet known how much Marmara was paid for this task.

Since 2013, Vince Marmara has built a reputation for political surveys he publishes regularly on It-Torċa, a Labour-leaning weekly owned by the General Workers Union.

While Marmara’s surveys cost thousands of euro to produce, the statistician never disclosed who finances his regular work, refusing to answer questions sent by The Shift.

During the years Marmara has been conducting surveys for the Labour Party, he received multiple direct orders for consultancies with government ministries and public agencies.

He has also formed his consultancy firm, Segalytics and Powerful Knowledge, with Frank Bezzina, Wasterserv’s chairman. Power Knowledge also receives several tenders from the Office of the Prime Minister.