The girlfriend of Tourism Minister Clayton Bartolo, who served as his personal secretary in his private secretariat, was on paper shifted to another ministry where her colleagues say she is not seen, in a move that is widely suspected to be an attempt to avoid the same scandal that hit former Education Minister Justyne Caruana.
The relationship between Bartolo, 34, and his private secretary Amanda Muscat has been an open secret for months, both within his ministry and among his Cabinet colleagues including the prime minister, after an embarrassing episode at his office.
According to the government’s internal server, Muscat kept the same email address she had at the Tourism Ministry, and she was not assigned a telephone line at the Gozo Ministry. Instead, she could only be contacted on the same number as the one assigned to the office of the Gozo Minister’s chief of staff.
Sources at the Tourism Ministry confirmed the move and told The Shift that Muscat did not really work at the Gozo Ministry and that this was only a cosmetic administrative exercise so the minister could avoid accusations of a breach of ethics in the run up to the elections – to prevent the consequences faced by former education minister Justyne Caruana who gave a €15,000 contract to Daniel Bogdanovic.
The Shift asked the tourism ministry about Clayton Bartolo’s move. A terse reply followed: “Ms Amanda Muscat is not employed at the Tourism Ministry or at the Gozo Ministry, nor at any other government entity, ministry or department.”
Yet despite her employment as a person of trust suddenly disappearing, The Shift already had the information on the government servers about her transfer. The information was removed when this news portal started asking questions.
In addition, several attempts were made over the past months to contact Muscat at her place of work in Gozo. The reply from the ministry’s receptionist confirmed her new allocation: “Ms Muscat is out on meetings”.
The Gozo Ministry and the Tourism Ministry would not say whether she has resigned.
The electorate voted to join the EU because they thought it would get rid of political corruption in Malta. Well, they were wrong.
Another day in paradise for the select few who just ignore all the rules, safe in the knowledge that there will be a collective closing of the ranks to protect them and their “ friends”.
Seems to be nice work if you have no moral compass at all.
Qeghdin sew fil kabinett x jonqos. Nahseb hemm il maggoranza bil HBİEB TAL HBİEB TA GEWWA U TA BARRA U İFMUNİ
Dear qisu burdell
Par for the course in today’s Malta.
Meeting with
Clayton?
Now are they going to do the same as they did to Justyne??
The Prime Minister told us that he deserved the 17,000 euro pay as a consultant with PA because he was very busy with applications, even reporting to work on Saturdays and Sundays! Wow ohh wow!! What was he doing exactly? Processing permits?? Of course he was busy seeing his personal business in construction flourishing! That’s what he was doing with PA!! Rubbish!!
The lure for sex, power and money – the basics for ticking the due diligemce boxes, to be considered to contest an election on the PL ticket.
That’s the tip of the iceberg of what’s happening in Gozo, contracts for services for people who doesn’t do anything galore. Political vendetta’a galore. If the people that have a contract for service given by the Minister for Gozo do an hour daily of work Gozo should be in much a better state. Its shameful how are taxes are being abused.
Its not only in Gozo. So please stop generalizing!
Whichever party is in Government, the Ministry for Gozo has all the ingredients for favouritism, duplication, and corruption.
Robert Abela ghandu jnehhi lil Clayton Bartolo minn Ministru tat-Turizmu