Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne is refusing to state whether he ordered the return of Carmen Ciantar from her two-month self-suspension.
Fearne, who gave Ciantar a five-year irregular contract at €163,000 a year from taxpayer funds, has also fallen silent when asked whether Ciantar was investigated, by whom and the probe’s actual conclusions.
The Shift can also reveal that according to her employment contract, Ciantar cannot suspend herself.
Worse, Ciantar cannot decide when she should return to her place of work and in which capacity.
According to her contract and the rules of her employer, the Foundation for Medical Services (FMS), which The Shift revealed, these decisions are to be taken by the board of directors, led by Joseph Sammut.
The Board usually takes direction from Minister Fearne.
Last Monday, out of the blue, Ciantar sent an email to news editors, announcing that she would be lifting her self-suspension as, according to her, “the truth and my integrity have won out over the massive and moneyed dark forces which tried to annihilate both”.
When both Ciantar and Fearne were asked to give more information about what she was referring to and to provide some form of evidence that she was investigated and exonerated, both Fearne and Ciantar declined to give any further information.
The Shift also asked Minister Fearne to state whether he had agreed with Ciantar’s lifting of her self-suspension, whether he was even informed, and to state under which provision in Ciantar’s contract and the FMS’s Disciplinary Procedures was Ciantar allowed to, first, self-suspend herself and then lift her own suspension.
Fearne was also asked whether, in view of her self-proclaimed “win over the dark forces”, Ciantar would be paid her remuneration for the two months she did not set foot in FMS offices.
Despite various reminders, Minster Fearne ignored the questions.
Considered as Minister Fearne’s right hand, Ciantar announced her self-suspension at the end of last May when Pakistani news portals alleged that she was on the take from the corrupt deal of the privatisation of the three state hospitals.
These claims were not carried by national independent newsrooms. They followed reports following a year’s international investigation by The Shift, The Times of Malta and OCCRP. There was a lack of proof, and the claims were similar to disinformation tactics recorded by this newsroom.
Yet Ciantar decided to suspend herself “to clear her name”, with the approval of Health Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne. She then decided to unsuspend herself in a letter sent to the media, with no justification except for her rhetoric on integrity, which is questionable.
No information has been published on whether an investigation was held and its conclusions.
She was an operative of disgraced former minister Konrad Mizzi when the scandalous deal was made. Ciantar then joined Fearne’s bandwagon before the 2017 general elections.
She was directly involved in his campaign – particularly against Konrad Mizzi in the same district. And later, helped Fearne win the internal Labour contest and become deputy leader.
In return, Fearne appointed her FMS CEO and put her on a €13,500 a month salary while also serving as his Chief of Staff, as The Shift revealed.
The NAO termed the contract irregular, and Fearne was asked to revise it. It wasn’t, despite Prime Minister Robert Abela promising the public that Ciantar’s package would be revised.
After orchestrating Fearne’s unsuccessful campaign to become Prime Minister, defeated against all odds by Robert Abela, Ciantar stopped acting as his chief of staff and kept the FMS job and all the €163,000 a year package.
Ciantar’s new contract, given to her after the last general elections, ends in July 2024.
Her daughter, Celine, also implicated in the latest allegations, was also put on the government’s payroll immediately after graduating as a dentist. Fearne nominated her to sit on a sensitive ministry board deciding on patients who should be sent abroad for medical care.
OHSA has no idea of how many tower cranes are operating in Malta
‘Tal-Bamboċċu’ demands payment from developers over Jerma Palace deal
Prime minister cites new excuse to keep asset declarations secret
Opinion: Debt rising, truth falling – Caruana’s misleading claims
Sign up to our newsletter Stay in the know
"*" indicates required fields
Tags
#Carmen Ciantar
#contract
#Foundation for Medical Services
#Health Minister Chris Fearne
#suspension
Related News
OHSA has no idea of how many tower cranes are operating in Malta
‘Tal-Bamboċċu’ demands payment from developers over Jerma Palace deal
Prime minister cites new excuse to keep asset declarations secret
Opinion: Debt rising, truth falling – Caruana’s misleading claims
Embarrassment as Malta fails to reach European higher-education standards
Health minister’s former trainee sits on FMS board that employs him
Authorities consider changes to planning rules to override court decision on Ta’ Xbiex restaurant
Payments to failed €55 million project contractor kept under wraps
Opinion: Byron Camilleri’s mess
Tax chief fails to fill €29,000 legal role, hands €78,000 contract to former minister
Bunkering association calls for observation of rules among Maltese players
There is a story in the bible where the tax collector of the king was nearing his retiring age. So he sent for the indebted tax payers and cooked the books to show that these tax payers owed much less to the king. His reason was that he was thinking for when he retired , so that these tax payers will support him in his old age. Something similar is happening. It is all legal to give inflated salaries , which are duly taxed and then the salary becomes a charity box to be picked .
The so called, only good one in the PL, Fearne, is as corrupt as the whole bunch of his ilk, when you sleep with the dog you catch his fleas.
From ‘taxpayer funds’? Really?
She and her silent boyfriend are in a deep mess and she should forget about her white ‘integrity’ which is destroyed from corruption ‘cumming’ from Pakistani and Indian crooks who Chris blessed as the ‘Real Deal’.
The Hon. Chris Fearne is looking at the coveted post of Commissioner in Brussels.
So why stir trouble now, when the near future looks brighter!!!
Totally OBSCENE , but they do not give a damn because the MALTESE IGHNA have been castrated.
What nonsense. They have been clearly f??? considering the favours. Fearne is done. And if he isn?t yet – he f? should be. He exudes sleaze.
To me, this sounds like a deal done in the backstage of Labour’s political theater.
Chris Fearne gets back Carmen Ciantar, and Joseph Mvscat gets Rosianne Cutajar reinstated as a Labour MP.
It must be peace making season in the Moviment Laburista, after too many wide cracks were exposed, and after the PM’s dizzying u-turns.
For the time being, such compromises may be sufficient to paper over the fissures, at least until the MEP elections.
Your defective Scriptural knowledge has somewhat deflated your comment. The rich man’s ”administrator” had been caught fiddling the books. His master called him up and said: Give an account of your stewardship for you can be steward no longer. Under which threat the steward began to seek some remedy: he said to himself, to dig I am not able; to beg I am ashamed. So he thought up this scheme of cooking the books in favour of his master’s debtors, so that they may receive me into their dwellings when I am sacked. A tale that could be fitted into the biographies of several local prominent persons. Look at Joseph Muscat and his Dragunara concession, for instance!
Ms Ciantar is one of the few who were lucky because her loyalty towards Mr Fearne was acknowledged. That does not mean that everything is correct however the majority of labour helpers are unsatisfied because their loyalty went unnoticed and even forgotten.
We live in modern times and it is time for the parties to start paying for the free work they expect from their helpers. Everyone has fuel to pay and they spend a lot of time away from their families , go home late at night. This modern slavery should end from both ends PN and PL.