Minister tried to keep his ten-day Paris Olympics trip out of the public eye

Education Minister Clifton Grima and his head of secretariat spent a long time in central Paris during July’s Olympic Games, but their visit went unnoticed.

There were no photos uploaded to social media and no updates given to the press, but the latest list of direct orders by the Education Ministry published in the Government Gazette revealed that the minister was actually in Paris, spending a total of 10 days with his assistant, costing €15,000.

According to the list, payment was made for a nine-night stay at Hotel Le Relais Saint Honore, metres away from the iconic Champs Elysee, “for the provision of two rooms including breakfast and city tax for the minister and head of secretariat for a stay for the 2024 Olympics.” Each room cost over €800 a night.

The minister’s presence was kept quiet. During Prime Minister Robert Abela’s visit to the Olympic Village, Minister Grima was also absent from the official photo published by the Office of the Prime Minister.

While it is customary for the minister responsible for sports to be present during the Olympics, a ten-day stay by a minister is quite long, as was the long stay of Malta Olympic Committee (MOC) officials well beyond the athletes’ participation.

All the officials of Team Malta, practically all the members of the MOC executive, stayed in Paris, at taxpayers’ expense, to attend the closing ceremony even though the five athletes representing Malta had ended their participation many days before.

Sources said that while it was acceptable for the MOC president and maybe another member of the delegation to stay until the end so that Malta could be represented at the closing ceremony, “there was no need for all the MOC committee members to stay on… for days, they just toured Paris courtesy of taxpayers”.

During last July’s games, The Shift reported that the Maltese contingent for the Paris Olympics had more officials than athletes.

With the exception of one MOC committee member, all the others had somehow found a role in Team Malta to be physically present at the games for three weeks. These were in addition to the coaches, medical professionals, and others who typically accompany athletes.