Labour’s campaign aide put on TM payroll a week after elections

After assisting the Labour Party in the last general elections, Chris Galea was made a Transport Malta consultant by Prime Minister Robert Abela only a week after the electorate went to the polls.

Galea had been disgraced former prime minister Joseph Muscat’s head of events, having joined his team at the Office of the Prime Minister in 2013.

Yet after helping Robert Abela’s campaign, the prime minister did not retain him at Castille but instead gave him a publicly paid consultancy on 1 April 2022. The contract was signed by the TM chairman at the time, Joseph Bugeja.

The Shift obtained Galea’s contract through a Freedom of Information request. It shows that he is being paid at least €22,000 a year without being required to turn up at TM’s offices.

Placed under the direct responsibility of then-TM Deputy CEO Kevin Farrugia, who has since been removed from the post on the orders of Minister Aaron Farrugia, the former OPM Head of Events is supposed to be providing “professional assistance and services to TM relating to logistics matters.”

The contract does not specify what logistics or events Galea is organising for the transport regulator.

The Shift has previously reported how in the last electoral campaign the Labour Party used events companies that were concurrently supplying and organising national events through a raft of direct orders – a move that effectively saw taxpayers footing the bill for a good portion of Labour’s campaign.

This includes the use of a fully mounted stage at the Malta Fairs and Conventions Centre (MFCC), set up with public funds to be used for the Muzika, Muzika song festival. The festival was postponed at the eleventh hour to make way for a Labour Party mass rally.

Galea is also on the Muzika, Muzika organising committee set up by the government agency Festivals Malta.

Galea has joined around 35 other consultants on the payrolls of entities within Minister Aaron Farrugia’s portfolio, costing taxpayers approximately €700,000 a year with questionable results.