Government’s public service expo expected to cost over €1.5 million

This year’s Public Service Expo, inaugurated earlier this week by Prime Minister Robert Abela at Ta’ Qali, was a “bolder and more extravagant waste of public funds”, described as a propaganda exercise.

Now in its third edition, the event is ostensibly a showcase of the Maltese public service’s achievements.

Spearheaded by Principal Permanent Secretary and prominent Labour Party activist Tony Sultana, this year’s event is expected to exceed the €1.5 million price tag of last year’s edition, which coincided with the European Parliament election campaign.

The 2025 edition includes more elaborate ministry displays, along with a series of concerts featuring local and international artists, commissioned by Sultana to boost public attendance.

At the Expo’s opening, Prime Minister Abela praised the public service, describing it as “one of the best administrations in the EU”.

Concealed costs and hidden agendas

A detailed analysis by The Shift, based on parliamentary questions tabled by Opposition MP Claudette Buttigieg, reveals that over €1.5 million was spent on last year’s Expo alone.

However, the true scale of the expenditure was obscured through the strategic fragmentation of costs across various ministries.

Abela’s administration made significant efforts to conceal these costs by dividing the expenses among various ministries, making the compilation of all the relevant information much more challenging.

For example, €700,000 was paid directly by the Office of the Prime Minister, including €100,000 on parties and catering and another €100,000 on leasing the MFCC venue from the Corinthia Group.

Individual ministries were also instructed to finance their own exhibition stands, with each costing around €50,000.

One notable absence from this year’s event is The Events Company (TEC), owned by long-time Labour contractor Carmelo Magro.

It seems relations between Magro and Abela have soured following a dispute over unpaid invoices from the 2024 MEP election campaign.

Since 2013, TEC had been the go-to provider for government mass events via direct orders, making its exclusion particularly striking.

Like TEC, other event contractors, now receiving the direct orders, have a history of providing services for free during Labour’s electoral campaigns, raising further questions about the use of public funds for partisan benefit.