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€1.20 Download the MaltaToday App now YOUR FIRST READ AND FIRST CLICK OF THE DAY WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT TONY ZAHRA INTERVIEWED Pgs 12-13 maltatoday SUNDAY • 29 SEPTEMBER 2013 • ISSUE 725 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY BioMalta foundation chairman asked to leave after being paid €750,000 BIOTECHNOLOGY entrepreneur Sir Chris Evans – who was appointed chairperson of the BioMalta Foundation, which aimed to pioneer the €30 million Life Sciences Park in San Gwann – has been sacked. Evans, who was engaged by former prime minister Lawrence Gonzi, was paid the princely sum of €750,000. The British national's contract has been terminated, and Chris Evans was paid €750,000, but his contract was terminated for non-performance officials said the reason was very simple: "He failed to deliver". The sources told MaltaToday that according to the same contract, part of the €750,000 sum was to be paid to a company in which Evans had a direct interest. The arrangement was terminated by Malta Enterprise in April 2013 on grounds of nonperformance. The news follows the probe into the appointment at Malta Enterprise of Konrad Mizzi's wife. The probe has incensed Labour, more so because the story was captained by the brother of the former Malta Enterprise chairman, Alan Camilleri. Prof. Evans is a medical health professional who has founded and spun off around 45 biotechnology companies during his career, and was awarded an OBE at the age of 36 and knighted at 42. "His experience in both business and industry is a key asset for Malta's economic growth, both in terms of inward investment attraction and also in local enterprise development," former finance minister Tonio Fenech said. In 2011, the government boasted that BioMalta Foundation was responsible to establish and manage the blueprint for the life sciences industry in Malta, as well as to oversee the successful development of the BioMalta Campus and establish an angel investor network to secure private funding for local companies to do research and development in the biotechnology, medical, health and pharmaceutical industry. BioMalta Foundation was responsible for devising a strategic roadmap for the life sciences and biotechnology industry in Malta, addressing the potential niches that Malta could attract and support, skills and resource gaps and how they could be addressed and inward investment programmes. CONTINUES BACK PAGE SEE PG 4, SAVIOUR BALZAN PG 18 THE PLOT THICKENS Gonzi, RCC wanted to change rules to placate angry Brussels reporter THE Gonzi administration seriously considered changing public sector employment rules by amending a legal notice in order to accommodate the wife of The Times Brussels-based journalist, Ivan Camilleri, and secure her posting in the permanent representation to the European Union. Email correspondence seen by MaltaToday between the head of the civil service, Godwin Grima, ambassador Richard Cachia Caruana and even Lawrence Gonzi details clearly the lengths to which the administration was willing to go in 2009 to prevent Nicolette Camilleri from having to pack up and leave Brussels to spend the mandatory eight months in Malta before being re-posted back to Brussels. Nicolette Camilleri – whose brother-in-law, Alan Camilleri, was formerly Gonzi's spokesperson – had already been in Cachia Caruana's embassy in Brussels for the maximum term of five years nine months, and was obliged to return to Malta for eight months if her post as technical attaché was to be renewed. In Malta, Godwin Grima pointed out that having Camilleri stay on as technical attaché in Brussels would require amending the legal notice for fixed-term contracts. In the email correspondence, Cachia Cachia informed Grima that he had discussed the matter with the prime minister: "Godwin, I have discussed the matter with the PM. The legal notice should certainly be amended, but it is obvious that we will not be able to do this in time to solve the issue that has arisen over Nicolette Camilleri." The correspondence shows that Gonzi actually approved a short-term contract so that Nicolette Camilleri could remain employed in the Lawrence Gonzi and Richard Cachia Caruana (left): the prime minister agreed to change fixed contract rules and create a short-term contract to have Nicolette Camilleri stay on in Brussels Brussels embassy's legal unit from November 2009 until January 2010 on three specific projects. "PM has authorised the short-term contract. I have asked [name deleted] to prepare the draft," Cachia Caruana informed Grima in October 2009. But plans turned sour after Camill- eri failed to get the job in November 2009 as technical attaché on maritime affairs in the EU permanent representation – coming in fifth out of 19 candidates and last out of those who had actually passed. CONTINUES ON BACK PAGE NEW E-PAPER LAUNCHED Savings of up to 50% SEE 3 PAGE Newspaper post How Gonzi administration devised special contract for wife of Times journalist Ivan Camilleri to extend their Brussels stay