The new board of directors of Infrastructure Malta is now effectively a constituency office for Transport Minister Aaron Farrugia.
The new board was announced last week and will be headed by architect Ray Farrugia. Its members include a large number of Labour Party canvassers from Minister Farrugia’s electoral district.
New deputy chair Josef Azzopardi is the mayor of Marsa, the first district from which Aaron Farrugia is elected.
Silvana Civelli, a member of Hamrun’s PL club, has no academic qualifications for the role but will earn a few thousand euros per year sitting in on board meetings.
Karen Schembri from Paola is also on the board. A former person of trust of Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne, the avid Labour Party supporter joined Minister Owen Bonnici’s secretariat but returned to Fearne’s fold several years ago. She was given a job as a manager in the office of Mater Dei CEO Celia Falzon.
Retired army officer Raphael ‘Il-Bagollu’ Farrugia was also nominated to the board by Minister Farrugia. The 70-year-old is known for his unconditional support of the Labour government during the Mintoff era. He is the father of Elena Zammit Lewis, wife of the former justice minister and current MP Edward Zammit Lewis.
The Infrastructure Malta board also includes Nadia Gatt Curmi, former Transport Minister Ian Borg’s architect when he applied for a controversial development permit to turn a dilapidated rural building on the fringes of Mġarr into his home in 2014. Curmi was later appointed director at Borg’s ministry.
This week, the minister also appointed Ivan Falzon, a former canvasser and personal assistant to former parliamentary secretary Franco Mercieca as the entity’s new CEO. Falzon was previously Mater Dei CEO and later appointed to the Water Services Corporation, all positions he got through political appointments.
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