The government has declined to grant whistleblower status to a former employee who reported alleged ‘abuse’ and ‘nepotism’ at the Social Care Standards Authority (SCSA) when the 74-year-old father of the politically appointed chairperson was given a job as a junior legal officer.
The Shift has learned that the whistleblower, who exposed this case among ‘many’ allegedly committed under the chairmanship of Labour candidate Katya De Giovanni, was informed by two lawyers from the Ministry for Senior Citizens that his report would not be investigated “as the whistleblower reporting officer (of the ministry) considered that the allegations were based on speculation and did not merit any further investigation”.
The government’s decision to turn down a report to investigate the alleged abuse of one of its own persons of trust comes just after Justice Minister Edward Zammit Lewis ‘announced’ earlier this month that changes are to be introduced to ensure that “whistleblower protection is extended to those who help colleagues flag abuse.”
The Shift revealed in August that the 74-year old Anthony De Giovanni, a Labour stalwart from Fgura, was put on the government’s payroll on a full-time basis to work as a junior legal officer at the SCSA.
At the time, De Giovanni’s own daughter, Katya De Giovanni, who will be contesting on the Labour ticket during the next general election, was chairperson of the same government agency, a position she received as a political appointment from the...
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