Song festival turned into €500,000 direct orders contest

Tens of direct orders, totalling half a million euro, were issued by an OPM-driven agency to host Muzika, Muzika – a Maltese song festival.

The initiative, welcomed mainly by Maltese song lovers and inspired by a similar idea from the Mintoff-era administration of the 1970s, aims to counter the local version of the Eurovision Song Festival.

The responsible entity, Festivals Malta, falls under the responsibility of Minister Owen Bonnici but is entirely driven from Castille, through its chairman, Aaron Zahra, who also serves as Prime Minister Robert Abela’s events coordinator for an additional salary.

According to the latest data published in the Government Gazette and analysed by The Shift, the festival is being transformed into an orgy of direct orders and an exercise in illegal procurement, with tens of direct orders issued to friends, with no apparent limits on the lavish spending of taxpayer funds.

For the latest festival, approximately 20 direct orders were issued for all procurement needs during the three-day event.

In a no-holds-barred spending spree of public funds, lavish contracts were issued, without proper calls, for all types of services, from hairdressing to make-up artists and the service of presenters, all paid handsomely and all through direct orders.

For example, the three presenters for the show, Keith Demicoli, Claire Agius, and Moira Delia, who also receive numerous government direct orders throughout the year to promote government initiatives, were paid €7,500 each for their presentation.

Comedian and presenter Ray Calleja, also a government director of PBS and the latest artistic director of the lavish Mediterrane Film Festival (who was paid €70,000 for the job), was given another €7,000 as a special guest star at the 2025 Muzika, Muzika.

Gerald Agius Ordway was issued an €80,000 contract for “technical project management services” for two festival editions, while another €30,000 was paid to Joseph Cauchi for the services of a producer.

Camera work for the show’s broadcast cost €11,000 paid to a former ONE TV cameraman, while Greatt Ltd, owned by former NET TV officials Anton Attard and Mark Grech, were paid €78,000 for the hiring of TV equipment and crew. Jason Micallef was paid over €5,000 to write a script for the already well-paid presenters.

Apart from the direct orders for the once-a-year festival, Aaron Zahra made sure to use direct orders for many other friends and mostly unnecessary services.

Labour Party former candidate Felix Busuttil, known as a dancer, has somehow found himself earning an extra €9,000 as a communication assistant. This, while the same agency issued €120,000 in direct orders to Kristina Polidano and Leo Chircop to act as communications officers for the same agency.

Many other direct orders were issued to employ officers at the agency, circumventing public sector employment rules.

Even Clint Bajada, the head of Labour’s One Radio, was put on the gravy train. He was issued a €7,000 payment to fill an unknown position as a radio communications officer.