Johann Grech spends €100,000 a year on foreign trips

Film Commissioner Johann Grech has spent close to €100,000 per year over the past two years on foreign travel, according to parliamentary figures that have revived concerns about his apparent disregard for transparency and accountability at the Malta Film Commission, as well as the Prime Minister’s reluctance to exert control.

Data tabled in parliament by Culture Minister Owen Bonnici, following questions by PN MP Ivan Bartolo, show that Grech undertook 18 overseas trips in 2024 and 2025, with individual visits costing taxpayers an average of more than €10,000 each.

Most of the trips were described as “trade missions” aimed at promoting Malta as a filming destination, though no details were provided about their content, outcomes or participants.

London featured prominently on Grech’s itinerary, with repeated visits to the UK capital. Several of these trips coincided with weekends or were scheduled to end the working week, according to the data. Grech was often accompanied by his private secretary, Mattias Buttigieg.

Los Angeles, the centre of the global film industry, was another frequent destination. In one three-month period last year, Grech travelled to the city twice, spending €68,000 on flights alone. On one occasion, he was joined by three unnamed consultants, with the State also covering their accommodation costs.

The scale of the travel spending comes weeks after the Malta Film Commission disbursed a reported €6 million in just one week to organise the latest edition of the Mediterrane Film Festival.

Details of how the funds were allocated, who benefited from the contracts and what tangible returns Malta received have not been published, despite repeated calls for disclosure.

The same happened in previous years, when Grech also spent about €5 million on each occasion.

The festival included a lavish gala dinner featuring a performance by tenor Joseph Calleja.

A tender linked to the event was awarded to Greatt Events, a company owned by former Nationalist Party officials Anton Attard and Mark Grech, known as ‘il-Guru‘.

The Shift reported that the tender was approved only after the event had already taken place.

Grech, a Gozitan former marketing executive for disgraced former prime minister Joseph Muscat, has long been a controversial figure.

Since his appointment, The Shift has documented repeated refusals by the Film Commission to publish contracts, due diligence reports and expenditure breakdowns, even as millions of public funds were channelled through opaque direct orders and consultancy agreements.

Grech is normally heavily involved in Labour’s election campaigns, where he coordinates contractors who are typically paid tens of thousands of euro in direct orders and contracts for work carried out for the Film Commission in the previous weeks and months.