Malta Enterprise chief officer shifted to dual taxpayer-funded posts

Anthony David Gatt, long a familiar face on Labour’s One TV, has been shifted from his full-time post as a chief officer at Malta Enterprise into a dual, taxpayer-funded role on the direction of the Office of the Prime Minister, The Shift has learnt.

Documents obtained by The Shift under Freedom of Information (FOI) rules show that, until several months ago, Gatt was drawing two government salaries simultaneously — one from the OPM or Malta Enterprise and another from the Justice Ministry, led by Jonathan Attard, a former One TV colleague. Together, the arrangements made Gatt eligible for more than €90,000 a year, including duplicate allowances for the same benefits.

Gatt, who enjoyed a rapid ascent within Malta Enterprise, left his senior position at the agency in November 2024 to join Prime Minister Robert Abela’s communications team at Castille. His new three-year “person of trust” contract carries a remuneration package exceeding €73,000 — well above the official salary of the prime minister — and tasks him with coordinating government communications staff.

The role overlaps with the responsibilities of Edward Montebello, the OPM’s official spokesperson. It remains unclear why Montebello required additional support, and sources in Castille said he had not requested any.

At the time of his appointment to the OPM payroll, Gatt was already engaged as a part-time policy consultant to the Justice Minister, advising on media strategy. The consultancy, worth about €18,000 a year for 10 hours’ work per week, included car, expense and “expertise” allowances — benefits that also formed part of his Malta Enterprise package and were then replicated at the OPM.

His OPM contract also granted him a €20,000 “expertise” allowance, a payment ostensibly reserved for exceptional specialisation and requiring explicit sign-off by the head of the prime minister’s secretariat. It is not known whether Gatt retained his part-time consultancy at the Justice Ministry after taking up full-time duties at Castille.

Before Labour’s return to power in 2013, Gatt had been one of the party’s prominent reporters. He subsequently moved onto the state payroll as an assistant to Kurt Farrugia  – spokesperson to disgraced former prime minister Joseph Muscat – before being appointed a chief officer at Malta Enterprise.

The OPM has refused to publish a list of consultants on its books and has instructed other ministries to do likewise.

Widespread abuse of multiple consultancy contracts for politically aligned appointees is understood to be common across the Labour administration.