Labour spokesman, former PS and a minister added to Abela’s payroll

Active Ageing Minister Jo Etienne Abela, the newest member of Cabinet, has hired nine consultants in his first year in office that are costing taxpayers over €160,000.

More significantly, the minister, who campaigned in Gozo on a platform of ‘honesty and integrity’, is also using public funds to pay his canvassers and new political allies while at the same time appeasing Labour functionaries.

In one such case of blurred lines between party and government, Abela has hired the Labour Party’s official spokesperson Ronald Vassallo as a ministry consultant.

Following in the footsteps of many colleagues at the Labour television station who have been given public postings on top of their party salary, Vassallo is now earning an extra €11,000 a year as the ministry’s “consultant on public speaking”.

The party spokesperson was placed on the board of directors of two other state companies – Malta Air Traffic Services and Housing Maintenance and Embellishment Ltd – pocketing more thousands in honoraria.

His girlfriend, ONE’s deputy head of news Trischia Falzon, is also being paid thousands in government handouts, including a €10,000 direct order to manage Minister Abela’s social media.

Abela has also made former ministers Justyne Caruana and former parliamentary secretary Stefan Buontempo part-time consultants.

Abela, a surgeon by profession, needed Caruana’s votes to make it to parliament. Caruana had to step down in disgrace after breaching the ministerial code of ethics for employing her boyfriend.

Abela is now paying Caruana an extra €23,000 a year, including a car allowance, as a legal adviser.

On his part, Buontempo, who failed to return to Parliament in 2017 after serving as Parliamentary Secretary, is now Abela’s consultant on the ‘implementation of the manifesto’ where he is earning €21,522 a year from the ministry. Buontempo had lost his parliamentary seat to Glenn Bedingfield.

Warren Grech, Gozo Channel’s human resources manager and one of the minister’s canvassers, is being paid an extra €15,000 for human resources consultancy for the ministry while surgeon Alex Attard, one of the minister’s former colleagues, is now his policy consultant earning an extra €12,000 a year.

The list of Abela’s consultants also includes Mario Azzopardi, a retired civil servant who also has a show on TVM (€21,522 a year); retired civil servant Carmen Dalli (€21,522 a year), academic Prof Charles Scerri, who is being paid €17,000 by Abela’s ministry; and academic Marvin Formosa who is earning €17,000 a year as a policy consultant.

Abela has also employed his sister-in-law as his personal assistant while his brother was transferred from Gozo Channel to the Gozo Ministry.