Ex-Labour MP at centre of ‘benefit fraud racket’ was OPM adviser until last year

The man at the centre of the alleged fraud involving false medical certificates to Labour voters for social benefits they were not entitled to, was an advisor to Prime Minister Robert Abela.

Former Labour MP Silvio Grixti, elected in 2017 and forced to resign his parliamentary seat in 2021 after being arrested and interrogated by the police, was an adviser to the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) between 2017 and 2022.

He was on a €20,500 a year contract signed by Projects Malta, which falls under the remit of the OPM.

The contract, renewed every year, was for Grixti to provide advice on health and life sciences and later local council projects “with particular emphasis on the south of Malta”.

His advisory role at the OPM is significant in light of reports by The Times of Malta that many of those seeking Grixti’s false certificates to receive social benefits were directed to the former MP by the OPM’s customer care unit.

While Grixti’s advisory role started when disgraced former prime minister Joseph Muscat was at the helm, Abela kept him on as he did with James Camenzuli, the key person in Projects Malta, enabling several shady deals shown to be corrupt, such as the privatisation of three of Malta’s public hospitals, which the Court ruled was “fraudulent“.

Due to the scandals surrounding Projects Malta, Abela rebranded the agency to Malta Strategic Partnerships Ltd. Its role is the same – to facilitate public-private partnerships – but controversy continues to surround the agency.

While Abela gave the agency a fresh look, he retained Camenzuli, whose signature is on all of Grixti’s contracts as OPM adviser.

In 2019, Grixti also served on the medical board of the Lands Authority

Other ministries and government entities also gave him a number of other consultancy contracts worth tens of thousands of euros.

These include some €50,761 from Transport Malta, with the latest contract lasting until mid-2022, and €23,123 from the Health Ministry as consultant to Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne.