Lands Authority CEO James Piscopo has resigned from his position, Lovin Malta is reliably informed. 

Piscopo was appointed to the role in 2018, having previously worked as CEO of Transport Malta and CEO of the Labour Party when Joseph Muscat was Opposition Leader.

His resignation comes a few days after Times of Malta reported that police are investigating a claim that Piscopo had hid around €600,000 in an offshore bank account in Jersey. This claim was reportedly peddled by the former Prime Minister’s chief of staff Keith Schembri, who tried to use murder suspect Yorgen Fenech to get this published in the press.

Piscopo was touted as a potential replacement for Schembri in 2016, after the OPM chief of staff fell sick with a potentially life-threatening illness in 2016.

The Lands Authority announces that a procedure to issue a call for the post of a new Chief Executive Officer has been initiated.

In a statement, the Lands Authority said it has initiated procedures to appoint a new CEO after Piscopo signalled his intention not to seek a renewal of his contract.

“During his term, the Authority registered significant progress and constant transformation in process management, cut down on backlogs, introduced online tools that facilitated application processing, significantly improved response times and generated record revenues for Government,” the statement read.

“During this period, important legal notices were enacted addressing long outstanding issues foremost of which, the redemption of residential temporary ground-rent enabling thousands of citizens to have the possibility of becoming their home owners.”

“The Lands Authority thanks Mr. Piscopo for his sterling work during his tenure.”

What do you make of this announcement?