Aqra bil-Malti
In a matter of weeks, Lands Minster Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi signed four separate direct orders to buy “media services,” spending €93,000.
Among the usual beneficiaries were Gareth Degiorgio, a canvasser and photographer for Prime Minister Robert Abela, Saviour Balzan, Media Today’s owner, and Aryton Bonnici, the electoral campaign manager of Finance Minister Clyde Caruana.
PR agency Red Orange, owned by Daniel Abela, was given almost €67,000 to make media bookings, mainly in advertising and sponsored content, on behalf of Zrinzo Azzopardi’s ministry.
The four contracts, seen by The Shift, were signed in 2023 when Zrinzo Azzopardi was responsible for Public Works and the controversial Planning Authority.
Despite his campaign, Zrinzo Azzopardi was removed. Instead, he was given Land and the implementation of the electoral manifesto.
The four contracts are similar, except for the one signed by Saviour Balzan to provide the minister with four separate polls. Balzan was to be paid €2,500 per poll over 12 months. The polls were supposed to assess the public’s perception of the Planning Authority and the construction industry.
It is common knowledge that Balzan, whose newspaper publishes regular political polls, sells its polling services to various ministries and government agencies. The contract also obliges Balzan to provide “advisory services” to Zrinzo Azzopardi’s ministry.
At the same time, Zrinzo Azzopardi recruited two media operatives who work closely with various ministers.
Prime Minister Robert Abela and his photographer Gareth Degiorgio.
Through his company Antilia Ltd, former ONE TV employee Aryton Bonnici was tasked with providing the ministry with “mediatic advisory services” for €8,250 over nine months, while the prime minister’s official photographer, Gareth Degiorgio, was paid another €8,400 to offer photographic services to the minister for six months.
Since Robert Abela became prime minister, Degiorgio and his company, G Media, have become the beneficiaries of similar contracts with ministries and government agencies.
Zrinzo Azzopardi spent almost €67,000 on ads in a campaign to promote the launch of a licence for building contractors.
If you see how many contracts Balzan is getting from so many ministries at the same time, including the foreign affairs ministry (signed in different versions, many without a proper authorisation, or even via nominees under the guise of ‘consultancy services’—because they fear The Shift’s FOI requests—), it’s humanly impossible to provide all the services he’s been engaged for. It’s more and more of the same: getting paid by the exchequer for doing no real work!