Aqra bil-Malti

The damning Standards Commissioner investigation finding two cabinet ministers flagrantly breaching the ministerial code of ethics has put the prime minister between a rock and a hard place as he is wholly compromised on the situation and cannot effectively sack his two most loyal colleagues.

The report clearly shows that Prime Minister Robert Abela approved, twice, through his chief of staff so that Minister Bartolo’s girlfriend Amanda Muscat was given fake, lucrative, publicly-funded consultancy contracts for which she was not qualified.

The prime minister knew precisely what was happening inside Minister Bartolo’s office but closed his eyes to the embarrassing situation.

The prime minister had a copy of the damning report days before it was published. It was passed on to him by Justice Minister Jonathan Attard, who is a member of the Standards Parliamentary Committee.

Yet nobody in his circle was surprised by Abela’s rushed public reaction to absolve his two ministers rather than sacking them.

The Shift was informed that during a cabinet meeting last week, Abela informed his ministers that no action would be taken against ministers Clayton Bartolo and Clint Camilleri despite the report’s scandalous findings.

“Last week, the prime minister informed cabinet members that he had read the Commissioner’s report and found nothing alarming to justify any harsh action against the two ministers,” a source present at the cabinet meeting told The Shift.

According to senior government officials, this position continues to dent Abela’s already flimsy hold on his cabinet.

Decisions timed to confuse investigation findings

A detailed analysis by The Shift of two similar investigations by the Standards Commissioner, one which led to the sacking of former Education Minister Justyne Caruana and the other on Clayton Bartolo’s girlfriend, unravels many timely coincidences which point straight to Robert Abela’s directions and actions to save his two most loyal ministers.

It was in December 2020 that Clayton Bartolo put his girlfriend on a contract of almost €70,000 as a policy consultant despite being his secretary with no knowledge of any consultancy work. This contract increased the minister’s girlfriend’s take-home pay by about €25,000.

The Office of the Prime Minister, through Robert Abela’s Chief of Staff, approved the contract without asking for Amanda Muscat’s CV, which now compromises the prime minister. Muscat had two A levels and a diploma, which was insufficient for such a role.

The Standards Commissioner said in his report, “There was no indication that Amanda Muscat had any qualifications, experience or knowledge on the tourism industry. One would expect a consultant to be in a position to give advice on issues related to politics or strategy in the relevant industry, as expected by the government’s Manual on Resourcing Policies and Procedures. This is a job that requires extensive experience and specialisation.”

Things started getting messy

On 21 March 2021, then-Standards Commissioner George Hyzler received a complaint to investigate Minister Justyne Caruana for giving her boyfriend, former footballer Daniel Bogdanovic, an employment consultancy contract.

The call for a probe immediately sounded the alarm bells for Robert Abela and Clayton Bartolo.

Five days later, on 26 March 2021, and only three months into her new consultancy contract, Amanda Muscat suddenly resigned.

When asked by the Commissioner to explain why she suddenly resigned from her job, Muscat said that Bartolo’s Chief of Staff, John Grima – a Mellieħa canvasser of the minister – suggested this “due to her affair which she had started with the minister.”

Grima did not confirm Muscat’s assertion.

Amanda Muscat told the Commissioner that Head of Secretariat John Grima suggested she resign, but he said otherwise.

Grima gave the Commissioner the impression that he did not know about the relationship between his minister and Amanda Muscat.

He insisted that Muscat had resigned of her own volition and that he did not know the reason. The Commissioner found this not to be credible.

Chief of Staff John Grima (right) said Amanda Muscat just resigned, but the Commissioner did not believe him.

In April 2021, in another attempt to keep Minister Bartolo satisfied while avoiding any future probe on his actions, similar to the one on Justyne Caruana,  Amanda Muscat was given a new contract, again as a consultant, with Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri. Once again, Robert Abela approved this contract, compromising him further, even though he knew that Muscat was to remain working with Bartolo.

This time, Muscat was given a further increase of €5,000 as an expertise allowance, which the OPM also approved without asking for her CV. Muscat received more than €70,000 a year through this second fake contract.

On 22 December 2021, shortly after former Standards Commissioner Hyzler issued his report finding Justyne Caruana guilty of breaching the code of ethics, Abela asked Justyne Caruana to resign.

A few days later, on 31 December 2021, the ministry immediately and prematurely terminated Amanda Muscat’s fake contract with the Gozo ministry. Again, no reason was given for this sudden decision.

When the Commissioner asked about it, Muscat played it down, saying that she wanted a career break and that she had finished the tasks given to her. The Commissioner disagreed that she had anything to do with the projects in which she claimed to be involved.

The probe revealed that she had no office at the Gozo ministry and never emailed Minister Camilleri despite her being employed as his person of trust. She also continued to manage her boyfriend’s (Minister Bartolo’s) appointments while supposedly being Camilleri’s policy adviser.

In January 2022, in another manoeuvre to hide what was happening and avoid a similar probe to Justyne Caruana’s, Robert Abela announced that he had offered Standards Commissioner George Hyzler a lucrative EU job.

That meant Hyzler was politely removed from the Standards Commissioner position, leaving Abela searching for a more ‘friendly’ Standards Commissioner.

But by the time Hyzler had left for his EU job, he had already secured all the compromising evidence. His successor, chosen by the prime minister, had no choice but to continue the investigation and reach the damning conclusions published this week.

Azzopardi’s analysis and conclusions are clear: those involved lied under oath, they used the system to their advantage and the Amanda Muscat got a job and salary she never deserved. All with the prime minister’s blessing.