It is not acceptable the the Prime Minister and Labour continue defending Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri, Nationalist Party Leader Bernard Grech said on Wednesday.
Addressing the media, Grech said that in the end, it was Camilleri who approved Amanda Muscat’s consultancy and €70,000 yearly wage.
The Opposition Leader said that all of this happened with the approval of Prime Minister Robert Abela, “the same Prime Minister who is trying to give us the impression that he did not know of anything”. Grech remarked that Abela “has his finger in the pie”, adding that what happened occurred with Abela’s blessing, and still has his blessing to this day.
The Standards Commissioner report found that former Tourism Minister Clayton Bartolo and Camilleri were found to have abused their power when Bartolo’s girlfriend at the time, now his wife, Muscat was given a consultancy job within the Ministry for Gozo which she had no qualifications for and did not do. In a meeting last Wednesday, the Standards Committee unanimously decided to adopt the conclusions of the Standards Commissioner’s report which found that the two relevant Ministers had breached ethics.
Bartolo resigned from his position as Minister on Tuesday morning, reportedly due to new circumstances resulting from the FIAU indicating that there is a possibility that Muscat received tens of thousands of euros in relation to a possible kickback for a Malta Tourism Authority contract.
Grech remarked that the people won when Bartolo had to concede and resign on Tuesday. He continued that the people can “win again” by continuing to be united in favour of Camilleri’s resignation. Grech said that the PN has called for a protest in front of parliament next Monday at 6pm with this aim. “It is important that you are there… regardless of whoever you voted for, and whichever way you intend to vote, whether or not you even vote, this is your country.”
The PN Leader described the Standards Committee’s decision this Wednesday as “another confirmation that what occurred these last days, particularly yesterday, were manoeuvres to save Clint Camilleri, or try to save Clint Camilleri”.
He said that the initial Standards Commissioner report had found both Camilleri and Bartolo guilty of breaching ethics in the same way and on the same level, but remarked that the same committee which adopted this report in its entirety has now decided that only Bartolo should personally apologise in parliament. He added that this decision was made despite the PN’s request that Bartolo and Camilleri should be ordered to refund all the public funds received by Muscat, as well as the PN’s request that both Bartolo and Camilleri should be made to immediately apologise and urged to resign by the Prime Minister.
With that in mind, Grech said that the government’s representatives on the Standards Committee, Justice Minister Jonathan Attard and Parliamentary Secretary Andy Ellul, as well as Speaker Anglu Farrugia who functions as the committee’s Chairperson, voted against Camilleri apologising despite the Standards Commissioner finding them both guilty. “Now they are choosing between their own parliamentary member, their own cabinet members,” Grech commented. He added that this decision is not acceptable to the PN, as what applies to Bartolo should apply to Camilleri as well.
He remarked that it is clear that this is not just a government with big internal, stability, and standards problems, but that it also has big problems of being a government of continuous fraud.
Speaking about the planned protest on Monday, Grech said that the people are urged to show Abela that he cannot keep going in the same direction. “A united people is a strong people, a strong people is therefore able to keep applying pressure so that Abela, in the same way they had to concede yesterday, concedes again and removes Camilleri… We can no longer accept this government’s fraud, a government of continuous and daily fraud.
Grech stated that while he believes that the future of Malta can be beautiful, and while he is convinced that the Maltese and Gozitan people can once again rise to the occasion, he also believes that the only way the country can move forward and “cast aside all this trash” is through change. He added that it is evident that Abela will continue being hardheaded and defend Camilleri. “Camilleri’s position is not tenable, he needs to leave,” Grech commented.
The Opposition Leader described Abela as a “weak Prime Minister who cannot control Camilleri”. Grech said that Camilleri feels that he can do whatever he wants, “including laughing in the face of the people and remaining in the position of Minister despite being an accomplice in the fraud of €70,000 a year from public funds”.
He concluded that the people, including the students, editorials, and all others who have said that those involved in the scandal are no longer tenable, will be with the PN at the protest on Monday. “It is your future and that of your children that is at stake. Camilleri and Abela are not bigger than the people. It is not acceptable that the people’s money is stolen by those who think that everything is theirs.”
