Jonathan Cardona has been transferred back to his former government role selling Maltese passports after being fired from his role at Enemalta on the instructions of Prime Minister Robert Abela following an unprecedented power outage crisis in the summer.
Cardona has now been appointed Chief Executive Officer of Community Malta Agency, responsible for selling Maltese passports. He previously held the same position until 2021, when he was handpicked by Energy Minister Miriam Dalli for the Enemalta job despite not having any experience or relevant skills in the energy field.
The remuneration Cardona has been given is as yet unclear.
In August, Abela immediately blamed Cardona for the electricity grid meltdown and ‘humiliated’ Dalli – at the time touted to be challenging his leadership – by ordering her to remove her chosen CEO after less than two years in office.
Cardona, a former classmate of disgraced former prime minister Joseph Muscat, was put in charge of selling Maltese passports, a project introduced by the Labour Party shortly after they came to power in 2013. The European Commission has since slammed the scheme, and Malta’s refusal to shelve it has resulted in legal proceedings in the EU.
Shortly after being appointed to his passport-selling role, he recruited his friend Monica Farrugia, a member of the Labour Party Executive, to assist him. They travelled internationally, spending hundreds of thousands of euro on expenses while selling passports to shady millionaires from Russia, Asia and the Middle East.
In 2021, as soon as Cardona was made CEO of Enemalta, on a package of €160,000, he again recruited Farrugia as its executive director with a salary of €105,000 a year. At the same time, Enemalta posted more than €30 million in annual losses.
Following his recent premature departure from Enemalta, Farrugia lost her post and was given a consultancy post with Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri.
Whether the government also paid Cardona a severance package to terminate his job at Enemalta is as yet to be established.
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They do take care of their flock.
I do really hope that the Maltese realise what is really happening to our country, since all these corrupt practices, favours and theft is not only increasing our national debt to unprecedented levels, but it is also jeopardising the pillars of democracy. To help the Maltese realise better, this country requires a true leader of the Opposition who inspires, unites and proposes solutions above all, not to mention that he or she requires the guts to declare this filthy government as one of illegitimate nature.
Amerikani bi flus haddiehor
It seems that there only need to be only two statements required on CVs for top Government appointments.
You know that PL voters will always vote PL no matter what? It doesn’t matter who is in opposition. This is why we will have a labour government probably until the end of the century. The only thing left to do is leave Malta to the pigs and their sheep voters and move to a first world country.