The ‘attack’ on Clayton Bartolo and his wife

MP Clayton Bartolo made a great catch when he married Amanda Muscat. The new Mrs Bartolo is so brilliant at so many things that she’s constantly head-hunted for more and more jobs.

She had barely been kicked out of her €68,000 fake Gozo Ministry consultancy post when she was immediately recruited as the personal assistant of Fortina’s CEO Edward Zammit Tabona and paid €120,000, press reports have confirmed.

She’d previously been paid another €50,000 in just six months for ostensibly organising cycling races in Equatorial Guinea and “assisting” in cycling initiatives in – of all places – Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, she also opened a coffee shop, which has since shut down.

She’s fantastic at organising Manchester United-themed exclusive parties in government ministry offices. She was also desperately needed at the Institute of Tourism Studies, the notorious ITS, which gave Rosianne Cutajar her fake job.

Her employment with the same Zammit Tabona, who gave Joseph Muscat one of his many consultancy jobs, wasn’t registered with JobsPlus – a legal requirement arrogantly disregarded with total impunity. That turned out to be pretty convenient for Mrs Clayton Bartolo.

That oversight meant she could continue to benefit from a subsidised loan rate, to which she was no longer entitled.  Concealing her employment with Zammit Tabona meant the Central Bank was left under the impression that Amanda (now) Bartolo was still on the government payroll.

The Central Bank had received a request, which it presumably acceded to, to allow her to be seconded to the Institute of Tourism Studies. But instead, she was employed as Zammit Tabona’s personal assistant.

Her protective husband, Clayton, went berserk when The Times of Malta revealed that Fortina had paid his wife €120,000. In the default knee-jerk reaction of every Labour minister caught with his finger in the pie, Bartolo played the victim.  “The intentions (behind the revelations) are clear – to continue the attack on my family and me with the consequence that I am stopped from giving a service to the Labour Party,” Bartolo complained on social media.

He objected to “being faced with certain questions about the investigations”. He denounced the report as “a story that is being orchestrated in order to delay us getting justice”.

In typical humility, Bartolo said: “This damage being done to us is also being done to the Labour Party, since, because of it, I remain outside the Parliamentary Group and I cannot help the Party as much as I wish”.

Well, it seems Robert Abela is in no big rush to have the amazing Bartolo back. The Prime Minister was asked point-blank, “Do you see a future where Clayton Bartolo returns to the Labour Party?”  Abela deftly deflected the question. “I don’t comment about pending investigations.”

Clayton Bartolo and Amanda Muscat were the subject of an investigation by the Financial Crimes Investigation Department after an FIAU report raised serious concerns about potential kickbacks over Muscat’s €50,000 payment from a company linked to Italian cyclist Valerio Agnoli, who had been given a Malta Tourism Authority contract under Bartolo’s tenure. The suspicious €120,000 Fortina payment to his wife also raised sufficient concerns for the police to investigate.

While former minister Clayton Bartolo said he and his wife were subjected to “a comprehensive investigation” by the Financial Crimes Investigation Department, and complained about further questions, it was revealed that it didn’t even include the seizure of electronic equipment or a search of their residence. When Bartolo and his wife were interrogated, they appeared to have been “ready for the questions” of the investigators.

Bartolo realises that now is the opportune time to get rehabilitated.  As pressure mounts on Prime Minister Robert Abela and general elections loom, Bartolo knows that all hands will be needed on deck to stave off the Opposition’s efforts to regain power.

That pressure on Abela was evident in his caustic comments to the press, telling them not to interfere in pending investigations, with a snide remark: “If what you are reporting is true, because everybody can report whatever they like”.

Abela just can’t contain his hostility towards the independent media. He has a visceral contempt for their investigative reporting, which keeps exposing the stench surrounding his government and some of his current and former Cabinet members.

And he’s set himself up as the paragon of rectitude: “God forbid I start commenting about investigations”. Wasn’t he the same Prime Minister who lambasted a magistrate for seizing the mobile phones of Joseph Muscat’s children and explicitly commented about that ongoing investigation?

Abela had no qualms about putting pressure on those who were investigating then. He had no qualms publicly criticising and putting pressure on the magistrate carrying out the Sofia inquiry, casting aspersions about her work ethic. Abela wrote twice to the Chief Justice to put pressure on Magistrate Marse-Anne Farrugia during that inquiry. He publicly accused her of “holding the country hostage”.

Bartolo insists there is “no case” against him or his wife. Yet not even his own leader, notorious for taking back everybody from Chris Cardona to Neville Gafa, from Ronald Mizzi to Rosianne Cutajar, is willing to state that he’ll take Bartolo back. And that is really saying something.