Top health ministry officials fuming over minister’s friend’s contract

Senior health ministry officials are fuming over Health Minister Jo Etienne Abela’s intervention to force the Foundation for Medical Services (FMS) to give a lucrative contract for his close associate, Kumar Rajasekeran Santhosh, paying him much more than them.

According to his contract, Santhosh, until a few years ago, one of Jo Etienne Abela’s trainees at Mater Dei Hospital, is earning a financial package of almost €80,000, much more than the salary of the health ministry’s top official, Permanent Secretary Joseph Chetcuti and the minister himself.

Santhosh was employed as a chief executive for clinical services and projects, a position outside the civil service but executed from an office within the health ministry.

Top officials told The Shift that while the ministry already has several director generals and directors responsible for the job Santhosh was given, they have almost become irrelevant as the minister only discusses crucial projects and decisions with his former associate and issues orders to the other top civil servants through him.

According to his contract, seen by The Shift following a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, Santhosh is being compensated through a raft of allowances unavailable to the other top civil servants.

Apart from a basic salary of €46,883, even higher than that of the health ministry’s permanent secretary, Santhosh was given a paid allowance for responsibilities that are part of his job. These include thousands as “project allowances” and others as “responsibility allowances.”

These are apart from an additional 15% performance bonus a year.

To complicate matters further, the permanent secretary must approve his €7,000 annual performance bonus despite him being unaware of his work, as Santhosh’s orders are dictated directly by the health minister.

An aesthetic physician of Indian origin and trainee of Jo Etienne Abela until a few years ago, Santhosh has been acting as the minister’s right-hand man ever since Prime Minister Robert Abela appointed Jo Etienne Abela as his parliamentary secretary.

His influence increased when the prime minister replaced Chris Fearne with the Gozitan medical consultant.

Santhosh was also appointed to various other health-related boards, including the management team of St Vincent De Paul.

Malta’s health service has been experiencing crisis after crisis, with no new projects implemented beyond their announcement.

The Paola Hub, a hospital for the south, has not seen the light of day due to the health ministry’s mismanagement. It is still closed to the public two years after its planned opening.