Active Ageing Minister Jo Etienne Abela, the newest member of Cabinet, has hired nine consultants in his first year in office that are costing taxpayers over €160,000.
More significantly, the minister, who campaigned in Gozo on a platform of ‘honesty and integrity’, is also using public funds to pay his canvassers and new political allies while at the same time appeasing Labour functionaries.
In one such case of blurred lines between party and government, Abela has hired the Labour Party’s official spokesperson Ronald Vassallo as a ministry consultant.
Following in the footsteps of many colleagues at the Labour television station who have been given public postings on top of their party salary, Vassallo is now earning an extra €11,000 a year as the ministry’s “consultant on public speaking”.
Ronald Vassallo with Prime Minister Abela a few days ago.
The party spokesperson was placed on the board of directors of two other state companies – Malta Air Traffic Services and Housing Maintenance and Embellishment Ltd – pocketing more thousands in honoraria.
His girlfriend, ONE’s deputy head of news Trischia Falzon, is also being paid thousands in government handouts, including a €10,000 direct order to manage Minister Abela’s social media.
Abela has also made former ministers Justyne Caruana and former parliamentary secretary Stefan Buontempo part-time consultants.
Abela, a surgeon by profession, needed Caruana’s votes to make it to parliament. Caruana had to step down in disgrace after breaching the ministerial code of ethics for employing her boyfriend.
Abela is now paying Caruana an extra €23,000 a year, including a car allowance, as a legal adviser.
On his part, Buontempo, who failed to return to Parliament in 2017 after serving as Parliamentary Secretary, is now Abela’s consultant on the ‘implementation of the manifesto’ where he is earning €21,522 a year from the ministry. Buontempo had lost his parliamentary seat to Glenn Bedingfield.
Warren Grech, Gozo Channel’s human resources manager and one of the minister’s canvassers, is being paid an extra €15,000 for human resources consultancy for the ministry while surgeon Alex Attard, one of the minister’s former colleagues, is now his policy consultant earning an extra €12,000 a year.
The list of Abela’s consultants also includes Mario Azzopardi, a retired civil servant who also has a show on TVM (€21,522 a year); retired civil servant Carmen Dalli (€21,522 a year), academic Prof Charles Scerri, who is being paid €17,000 by Abela’s ministry; and academic Marvin Formosa who is earning €17,000 a year as a policy consultant.
Abela has also employed his sister-in-law as his personal assistant while his brother was transferred from Gozo Channel to the Gozo Ministry.
Meta Rosianne Cutajar qalet kulhadd jithanzer kienet taf x’qed tghid.
Dawn huma whud mill MAQJEL.
Dawn huma l HNIEZER u QZIEQEZ li lesti biex jieklu kull Ewro mit taxxi.
Tal iskantament huwa l fatt li meta jigi ghall haddiem biex itejjeb il pagi dan id DEMEL Gvern jixxahhah u certu UNIONS ma jitkellmux.
Il GWU wahda minnhom.
Taf li saru trasferimenti ta’ xi haddiema u dawn spicca NHADMU bil ftehim QARIRI..pero hi mhi taghmel xejn ghall membri taghha.
Il GWU hi il-hanzira tal Ghamieri. Minna bdew il-hniezer l-ohrajn.
Oink oink they are all at it and the majority just don’t care?
‘They are all in it’ unless someone disassociates himself from the ‘all’ by declaring publicly that he was/is in the pigsty.
This is one of the ‘Honorevoli’ deciding the Maltese people’s fate .
Big fat PIG fattening HIS pig herd.
What a disgrace of a minister !!
Consultant, consultant?
Most, if not all, completely redundant!
Dik onesta u integrita Abela. Smajtu jitkellem fuq RTK ma Profs Azzopardi tahsbu Anglu fis sema. Ghal Nurses ma ghandux. CAPCAP GAHAN MEQMEQ. KOMPLU THANZRU.
PACI U SLIEM
Basta gab l skuza tal-mara, il-mejjet bil-guh bhal zijuh!
The trough must be made of rubber, it keeps getting bigger to accomodate the new pigs.
Yes, like a balloon that gets bigger until it bursts. Surely, the PL is making sure that it will burst one day. It is just a matter of time.
From where and how can someone get a consultancy diploma or degree, please?
I think that the PL must have some ways to produce the diplomas or degrees necessary in no time.
Hello Clyde,
May you kindly help me out to fill my tax return and quantify how much I should fairly contribute to help your colleagues and their lackeys “earn” a living.
much obliged…
And it is most probable that Minister Abela will be next Minister for Health very soon. Tal-biki.
And Minister Clyde Caruana is being made to look like a fool.
‘Ghalikom b’onesta u integrita’,
ths is what he declared in the poster above !
Abela, for once be honest with yourself and your supporters where is your honesty and integrity ???
By your actions you are proving Cutajar was right when she called you ALL pigs including YOU.
All cut from the same cloth!
Onesta u integrita ??? Nies qrib tieghu bil paga ghaddeja u lanqas biss ma jkun ghax xoghol. U Gahan jhallas.
I pay tax according to the rules. What should I do in order not to be a gahan? I never voted for this lot as I never trusted them.
“Ghalikom b’onesta u integrita”
Oh what a load of crap…… Pull the other one Joe!
The PL family is steadily growing along the way jobs are dished out to ‘newcomers’ and Mr Abela is defiant to all critics in order to keep his promise of continuity going. I wonder whether he might still have an overview about the ‘who’s got which job’, given that the numbers of people employed by himself and his government are still increasing.