Former tourism minister Clayton Bartolo, sacked last November, employed a raft of consultants, including former minister Aaron Farrugia, the prime minister’s legal assistant Ryan Pace and former PN strategist Lou Bondi.
A Freedom of Information request filed by The Shift revealed that Bartolo spent tens of thousands of euros engaging these advisers on a person-of-trust basis.
Bondi, Pace and Farrugia were among the most highly paid.
Aaron Farrugia, the former Transport Minister sacked by Prime Minister Robert Abela in his latest reshuffle in January 2024, did not take long to return to the government’s payroll.
While cashing in €33,000 in terminal benefits for being made redundant by Abela, Clayton Bartolo immediately engaged him as a consultant at the tourism ministry in March 2024.
Bartolo gave his former Cabinet colleague a €71,000 full-time contract as his policy adviser, with his mission being to help his chief of staff with policy and ministry direction.
Apart from his basic contract, amounting to over €40,000 a year, the OPM approved a €20,000 expertise allowance for Farrugia, pushing his financial package to some €71,000, including other allowances.
Farrugia ended up receiving a higher income than he did as minister a few months earlier. He was also appointed Malta’s ambassador to the International Maritime Organisation, paid separately.
Lou Bondi was also one of Bartolo’s ministry’s consultants, primarily on communications and PR. He was given a €50,000 contract to act as Bartolo’s adviser on communications and marketing.
Bondi had been advising Bartolo since 2022, with his contract renewed annually.
Ryan Pace, the prime minister’s assistant at his former private legal firm, was also made a part-time consultant on legal issues, including complaints filed with the Standards Commissioner.
Pace, still in his early 30s, was paid €32,000 a year for 20 hours a week, including a €7,500 expertise allowance.
In December, The Shift reported that Pace held 11 different government jobs. The latest €32,000-a-year contract continues to sustain questions on how he can deliver on all these jobs.
Through his various government contracts, Pace is supposed to work over 120 hours a week, besides his private practice.
Other advisers employed with Bartolo were Alexander Debono, Alfred Attard, Charles Debattista, John Grima, Joseph Borg, Richard Schembri, Adrian Said Calleja, Joseph Fava, Mario Azzopardi and Stephen McCarthy.
OINK, OINK, Snort, Snort!
John Grima li kien Chief of Staff tieghu qabel l-ahhar elezzjoni hux hekk?? John Grima li kien isiefer mieghu fuq xoghol … paid for by the state hux hekk?? John Grima dak li baqa diehel u hiereg il-ministeru u jaghti l-ordnijiet qisu ghadu Chief of Staff hux hekk?? John Grima dak li ma baqax Chief of Staff biex setgha dahal Stellini bhala Chief of Staff li huh jahdem ghand id-db, l-istess db li huma sidien tal-post fejn kellhu t-tieg Bartolo hux hekk??
Ghallimtuni. Ma ghandix Gahan. Gejt “kannol bla krema” minn jeddi imma.
You must be joking. If then-minister Bartolo needed that many advisors, he must have been in a state of perpetual stupor, drunk all day with occasional clear periods during the night, when his many advisors were presumably asleep. Certain it is that his Tourism Ministry was costing the country an absolute packet. Let’s hope Deputy Prime Minister Ian Borg is not that extravagant.
Ma jitlifx lira Lou (Loo) 🤮
Dak ta Malta Taghna Lkoll habib tieghi. Lill dawk KOLLHA hadu hsibhom.
Issa jivvutawlu dawn in nies li qed jithannzru hux. Ara jigux ihabbtu l bieb qabel l elezzjoni.jaq