70-year-old Labour fundraiser also approves major government contracts

Margaret Camilleri, a 70-year-old pensioner and Labour fundraiser, is one of the members of the government’s General Contracts Committee – the most critical government decision-making body approving hundreds of millions in government contracts.

The Shift is informed that the veteran Labour activist from Birżebbuġa has been Labour’s link on the committee since 2021, appointed by Finance Minister Clyde Caruana.

Her sensitive position has been raising eyebrows due to a serious conflict between her active fundraising role within the Labour Party and decisions affecting the beneficiaries of multi-million-euro government contracts.

Additionally, Camilleri also manages to serve as a government-appointed director on the boards of the Malta Freeport Corporation and Malta MedAir – a government airline – supplementing her pension with three separate monthly paychecks.

The Shift’s attention to Camilleri’s conflicting role was raised by member colleagues of the contracts committee, who found her recent appearances on ONE TV receiving donations for Labour during its telethon to be “shocking”.

“We didn’t know that she was doing this work and was showing off about it even though we knew that she was a harsh Labour militant as she has every right to be,” a member of the committee said on condition of anonymity.

Another said that her presence on the contracts committee was untenable, particularly due to the pressure that members are known to be under, both from government ministries and prospective contractors.

“I feel very uncomfortable in her presence on the committee,” one member said.

It is an open secret that most of the money donated to Labour during telethons does not come from activists, but rather from businesses that regularly receive government contracts.

Some of the same donors typically also make smaller-scale donations to the Opposition to avoid criticism and questions.

Both traditional parties, when in government, always refused to discuss the introduction of state party financing, reducing the political parties’ dependency on big business.

Labour sources described Camilleri as a staunch activist who has been active for decades, since the Mintoff years.

Until a few months ago, apart from receiving her pension and her honoraria from various government boards, Camilleri was also engaged in the private secretariat of former Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne.

For Labour, she works as a volunteer.