An investigation by Standards Commissioner Joseph Azzopardi found that two cabinet ministers, Tourism’s Clayton Bartolo and Gozo’s Clint Camilleri, breached the ministerial code of ethics through a consultancy contract they gave Amanda Muscat, at the time, Minister Bartolo’s girlfriend and personal secretary.

The investigation started in 2022 following revelations by The Shift, which led to independent candidate Arnold Cassola’s call for an official probe.

The investigation’s report and conclusions were published following a meeting of the Standards Parliamentary Committee, at which PN members Ryan Callus and Mark Anthony Sammut insisted it must be published.

Damning conclusions

Confirming The Shift’s story in its totality, Commissioner Azzopardi found that following the start of the extramarital relationship between Minister Bartolo and Amanda Muscat in 2020 – then his private secretary – the latter was promoted to a much higher grade as policy consultant, a position for which she was not qualified.

This new contract at the Tourism Ministry came with a €15,000 expertise allowance and many perks even though Muscat kept doing the same work as the minister’s private secretary.

When former Gozo minister Justyne Caruana was in hot water for employing her boyfriend, Bartolo got Amanda Muscat transferred (on paper) to the Gozo ministry to avoid the same scandal. She never actually worked there.

Through this new post, Amanda Muscat was given a further increase in her salary, with her expertise allowance boosted to €20,000 despite her lack of qualifications and experience.

For this contract, the minister’s girlfriend was being paid €70,000 from public funds. She has two A-levels and a diploma, which are insufficient for a policy consultant role unless you’re the minister’s girlfriend.

Robert Abela’s Office approved both expertise allowances, which should only be given in exceptional circumstances.

In further embarrassing conclusions, the Commissioner established that despite her supposed move to the Gozo ministry, Amanda Muscat never worked at Clint Camilleri’s Ministry and never wrote a single consultancy report for which she was supposedly engaged.

Instead, the Commissioner found that Muscat continued to work at Clayton Bartolo’s ministry as his private secretary but received her salary from the Gozo ministry.

While Minister Camilleri tried to justify to the Commissioner that Muscat did some work for his ministry, email trails obtained by the Standards Commissioner during his probe found that during her supposed consultancy contract with the Gozo ministry as the minister’s person of trust, she had never sent an email to either the minister or his chief of staff, Michael Buhagiar.

Even worse, both ministers Bartolo and Camilleri tried to shift the responsibility of Muscat, her engagement contracts, and whether she was doing the job of a consultant onto their heads of private secretariats, Michael Buhagiar, for Camilleri, and John Grima, for Bartolo.

However, in his conclusions, the Standards Commissioner made it clear that it was ministers who engaged persons of trust and they were responsible.

In his report, Commissioner Azzopardi questioned the credibility of the declarations made under oath by both ministers and their representatives.

He concluded that both ministers clearly erred and breached the ministerial code of ethics.

Prime Minister Robert Abela has been aware of the report’s conclusions for a number of days but there is no information on whether he has asked for their resignations, as he did with Justyne Caruana and Rosianne Cutajar in similar circumstances.

Clint Camilleri is regarded in top government circles as Abela’s most trusted and loyal minister.

Minister Bartolo is also being investigated separately by the Auditor General on whether the lavish ceremony he organised when marrying Amanda Muscat was a misuse of public funds.