Opinion: The single point of reference

There was no doubt, but the National Audit Office (NAO) has now confirmed it. Tourism Minister Clayton Bartolo was fooling the country when he claimed the Malta Film Awards were good value for money.

Bartolo squandered an incalculable amount of taxpayer’s money on the Malta Film Week for no identifiable return. At least, that’s the NAO’s conclusion.

When Bartolo and his loyal sidekick, Film Commissioner Johann Grech, repeatedly told us that the Malta Film Awards were worth every penny, they were just bluffing.

Bartolo had no clue how many hundreds of thousands were spent on Malta Film Week and far less of a clue what return the country got on that ‘investment’.

Thanks to the NAO, we now have conclusive evidence that Bartolo is good at one thing – squandering taxpayers’ money, claiming it was money well spent and refusing to return it.

The NAO was categorical in its condemnation.  It left no room for interpretation:  “The Malta Film Commission could not support its claim that the Malta Film Week constituted value for money”.

Bartolo is getting pretty good at this.  First, he got us to pay a consultant’s salary plus additional maximum allowances for his girlfriend to do a secretary’s job.  Now, we’ve discovered he made us spend over a million euro for a useless event.

The sad thing is we don’t even know exactly how much that Malta Film Week cost us.  The NAO tried very hard to find out.  In the end, it just gave up.  “The non-availability of MFC’s comprehensive accounting records to the NAO did not enable this office to conclusively determine completeness of costs in the Malta Film week”.

All they could figure out is that the week cost the taxpayer far more than €1.3 million.

First, the NAO tried finding out how much Clayton’s magic night, the Malta Film Awards, cost. They simply couldn’t. The Malta Film Awards wasn’t treated as a separate cost centre from the Malta Film Week. That was a cunning plan to cover up the eye-watering amounts of money spent on just one night.

The Film Commission failed to submit the financial documentation requested by the NAO and only provided limited information “in the concluding phase of the audit”.

What the NAO found was chaos.  The last audited financial statements of the Malta Film Commission (MFC) submitted to parliament date back to 2019.  Those for 2020 were only finalised in October 2023.  Those for 2021 and 2022 were concluded in October 2024.  None of these were tabled in parliament.

The MFC Act (Cap478) states that a copy of audited financial statements must be submitted to the Minister no later than six weeks after the end of the financial year.

Bartolo was responsible for ensuring the MFC followed the MFC Act.  Instead, he let his friend Johann Grech break the law with impunity.

The NAO had no financial statements to work on. The one for 2020 was available to the MFC, but they didn’t hand it over to the NAO until September 2024. That statement was next to useless. It didn’t include any services provided to the MFC by government entities like PBS for the Malta Film Week.

The financial statements from 2021 and 2022 weren’t concluded until October 2024.

The NAO found a mess.  There was no internal committee running the Malta Film Week; everything was decided by Johann Grech.

There was no planning documentation relating to sponsorships or non-financial agreements. MFC didn’t maintain any costs to enable detailed financial analysis. There were unquantified verbal agreements. MFC was unable to assess the event’s outcomes.

The MFC didn’t even document decisions taken by management or ministry approvals for certain expenditures. There was a complete absence of formally approved strategies, policies or plans. There wasn’t even a cost-benefit analysis.

MFC did not keep detailed accounts of services and service providers involved in non-financial agreements. The descriptions on invoices were “somewhat limited” and didn’t attribute specific costs to particular events.

The MFC couldn’t even tell the NAO how many participants attended the Malta Film Awards or the viewership of the event. The MFC failed to carry out any studies to evaluate the benefits of Malta Film Week.

The NAO concluded that “MFC is not in a position to determine the return on investment.”

The NAO found that while €400,000 had been allocated for the Malta Film Week, Johann Grech spent at least €1.3 million.

Most of it was through direct orders, some of which lacked approval, while others received only qualified approval.

Johann Grech contended that his outrageous spending was supported by high-level discussions with the MTA, the Finance Ministry and the Commission – but conveniently, no minutes were kept.

Grech had nothing to show to justify his wild claims, and the NAO had nothing to allow it to scrutinise Grech and his commission. Everything was conveniently concealed.

The NAO, whose reports are typically measured, let rip:  “This office also questions the extent to which competition and procurement rules were adhered to…. by the MFC to stage these events”.

“Such a situation raises concerns about accountability and transparency related to provenance, spending and administration of public funds,” the NAO said.

The NAO left no doubt about who was to blame: “The situation is further compounded by the centralisation of decision-making to a single point of reference, namely the Commissioner of the MFC”. That’s Johann Grech.

Now, guess who appointed Grech Commissioner and gave him a €150,000 salary. Guess who protected and defended him?  Guess who stood by Grech as he repeatedly failed to submit financial statements for the MFC for years in breach of the law?

Guess who repeated Grech’s lies to the public that the Malta Film Week was good value for money? And guess who’ll keep him in the post after the chaos the NAO exposed at his film commission?

Yes, that’s right – Minister Clayton Bartolo. Well, he did admit he isn’t perfect.