Opinion: Defending the indefensible

Robert Abela is cornered.  And, as expected, he’s hysterical.

“The branch of the PN, Repubblika, felt that after this report it should lodge a false complaint.  You see the aggressive tone of hatred in that complaint, and you have this branch that PN is using strategically to destroy the ministers of this government on a personal level,” Abela claimed.

He was reacting to Repubblika’s request for the police commissioner to investigate and prosecute Ministers Clayton Bartolo and Clint Camilleri and Bartolo’s wife, Amanda Muscat.

The Standard Commissioner’s damning report about Ministers Clayton Bartolo and Clint Camilleri revealed that they conspired to misappropriate tens of thousands of taxpayers’ money to pay Bartolo’s then-girlfriend for consultancy work she wasn’t able to perform and never did.

Despite her manifest ineptitude and inexperience, Muscat, Bartolo’s then-girlfriend, was swiftly promoted from private secretary to consultant.  Her salary was inflated astronomically.

She was put on the highest scale possible, salary scale 3, reserved for Directors General. On top of that, she was given an expertise allowance of €15,000, which was then increased to €20,000 – for expertise she didn’t possess.

She received a €2,000 expenses allowance, a transport allowance of over €4,500 and a communications allowance –  bringing her total remuneration to close to €70,000 annually.

To make matters worse, the two ministers conspired to deceive the public by conjuring a fictitious story claiming that Muscat was transferred to the Gozo ministry when she was still “working” as Bartolo’s private secretary, as revealed by the Shift.

The two ministers then roped in their respective heads of secretariat to lie under oath to the Standards Commissioner to cover up the Ministers’ flagrant abuse. The ministers, too, lied brazenly to send the Commissioner off track.  Clint Camilleri, through his lawyers, claimed he knew what Muscat was doing, what projects she was working on, that he saw the results and communicated with her”.

But Muscat never worked at the Gozo ministry.  Camilleri hadn’t communicated with her.  The Standards Commissioner trawled through her email box and there was nothing in it. Camilleri was lying.

Camilleri also claimed she was recruited by his head of secretariat and it’s not his responsibility to check her punch clock.  The Commissioner pointed out she was appointed as a person of trust – the minister’s trust, not the head of secretariat’s and she was accountable to him.

Clayton Bartolo claimed he wasn’t involved in her recruitment and blamed his head of secretariat, John Grima. Grima, on his part, gave conflicting evidence under oath.

He claimed he was shocked when Muscat handed in her resignation. But Muscat claimed it was Grima who suggested she should leave because of her intimate relationship with the minister.

The Commissioner wasn’t fooled.  He said, “This would have been correct if it had been true”.  It wasn’t.  Grima was lying.  The transfer to Gozo was just a ruse.

Muscat never worked for the Gozo ministry.  She had no office. There’s no record of her attendance. There’s no evidence of any consultancy work.

Michael Buhagiar, Clint Camilleri’s head of secretariat, claimed she was involved in multiple projects – the diving strategy, the film industry, the Malta International Fireworks Festival, the Comino Trail.  The truth is she hadn’t worked on any and neither Buhagiar nor Minister Camilleri provided any evidence that she had.

When Buhagiar was challenged about how he supervised Muscat’s work when there were no emails between them, he claimed he doesn’t use email much.  He claimed he supervised her work through third persons, but when asked to name them, he replied, “Off the top of my head, I can’t remember.”

Clint Camilleri didn’t offer any apology despite his collusion in the nefarious scheme to enrich Bartolo’s girlfriend and to cover up the abuse. Clayton Bartolo offered a half-hearted apology claiming, “If there were any shortcomings from my end, I humbly apologise”.  If?

“No one is perfect in this world,” he said.

The brazen misappropriation of tens of thousands of euro of taxpayers’ money and the subsequent attempts to cover it up, their false statements to the Commissioner, and their attempts to conceal their wrongdoing means only one thing – there is no place for Bartolo and Camilleri in cabinet.

Justyne Caruana was kicked out for far less.   Why is Robert Abela desperately defending Camilleri and Bartolo?

Because the Office of the Prime Minister approved Amanda Muscat’s appointment as a consultant. Robert Abela’s Office knew Muscat wasn’t really working at the Gozo ministry.

Muscat was copied in OPM emails relating to the tourism ministry in Malta, proving Abela’s office knew what Bartolo and Camilleri were up to.  Camilleri used that fact to protect himself, highlighting to the Standards Commissioner that OPM approved her appointment and, therefore, he shouldn’t be held responsible.

Abela lost the plot.  He’s lying through his teeth to save his skin.  “The person in question has not worked with the government for more than three years,” Abela declared. That’s false. Muscat’s post was terminated in January 2022.

“It was a job that only lasted a few months,” Abela stated.  Muscat was employed between April 2020 and January 2022 – that’s almost two years.

“The person in question worked… we are not talking about a phantom job.  The Standards Commissioner confirmed how much that person worked,” Abela added.  No, the Commissioner didn’t.

Instead, the Commissioner pointed out that Muscat didn’t have the qualifications or expertise to perform the role of consultant, and he found no evidence that she had done any consultancy work whatsoever.

Abela is trying to whitewash the shameless misappropriation of public funds and the shameful lies to cover it up. He knows he should fire both ministers.  But his office approved her appointment. He’d need to resign, too. His government would fall apart.

The truth is that both ministers shouldn’t just lose their cabinet seat.  They should be investigated and prosecuted.  Police Commissioner Angelo Gafa shouldn’t need any prompting.  But Robert Abela has already sent out his message:  “The (Commissioner’s) report does not negatively impact the continuation of the two ministers’(cabinet) roles”.