ITS super CEO can’t explain Cutajar’s ‘phantom job’

Pierre Fenech, a political appointee earning two government CEO salaries through the intervention of disgraced former minister Konrad Mizzi, cannot explain how he recruited beleaguered Labour MP Rosianne Cutajar as his consultant or whether she has performed any work whatsoever for the Institute of Tourism Studies (ITS).

Following last week’s publication of WhatsApp chats between the former Qormi mayor and Yorgen Fenech, the businessman charged with commissioning the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, it results that Cutajar had been placed on a third government salary as a personal advisor to the ITS CEO.

Cutajar’s three-year ITS contract was signed by Pierre Fenech more than two months before she mentioned the possibility of “another salary” to Yorgen Fenech in the chats.

Venting her frustration over how she had not managed to get a cabinet post, the chats show that in July 2019 she told Fenech that since all of her Labour colleagues were ‘pigging out’ (kulhadd jithanzer),  she would do likewise by accepting a consultancy job from Pierre Fenech.

The Shift established that two months before the actual chat, the ITS CEO had already signed Rosianne Cutajar’s three-year consultancy contract and started paying her before she was made an advisor to the educational institution.

The Shift was later informed that the contract was hardly worth the paper it was written and her role at ITS was practically non-existent.

Asked to explain why he signed Cutajar’s €27,000-a-year consultancy contract two months before she mentioned it Yorgen Fenech, the ITS CEO has not yet replied .

The Shift also asked the ITS and Mediterranean Conference Centre double CEO to explain whether Cutajar had carried out any actual work at ITS, whether she was being paid for a phantom job and how she was suited to advise in areas such as financial administration.

Cutajar is an Italian language teacher by profession.

On another occasion when it resulted that someone else, Melvin Theuma, had been given a phantom government job, the police investigated and arraigned those involved for fraud.

Pierre Fenech, himself part of the Labour administration’s inner circle, is the person under the tourism ministry receiving two salaries for concurrently holding two CEO posts.

Following The Shift’s revelations, Tourism Minister Clayton Bartolo defended Fenech’s unique skills, stating that he could perform both jobs, which are earning him over €122,000 a year, without the need to recruit extra help.

Pressed by opposition MP Rebekah Borg in parliament to state how many hours Fenech spends at the MCC, Bartolo admitted that “his hours are not specified”.

“Since he is the CEO, his hours vary and include work on weekends and at night,” Bartolo told the House.

In addition to his double salary, Fenech’s wife Romina, a close friend of Michelle Muscat, is a government appointee at Mediterranean Offshore Bunkering Company Ltd and was also promoted to a senior position at the Housing Authority.

ADPD asks Auditor General to investigate Cutajar’s ITS contract

ADPD – The Green Party Chairperson Carmel Cacopardo this morning requested the Auditor General to investigate Cutajar’s ITS employment contract following The Shift’s reports.

In his request, Cacopardo underscored how the contract stipulates that Cutajar was engaged to provide financial administration services for ITS.

“It is, however, well known that she does not have any competence in this area,” Cacopardo said.

He asked the Auditor General to establish whether ITS has made abusive use of public funds “through the creation of a fictitious job to satisfy Cutajar’s greed”.