Malta, Times of Malta, Inglês

Parliament’s Standards in Public Life Committee has adopted the conclusions of a report by the Standards Commissioner that found Ministers Clayton Bartolo and Clint Camilleri in breach of ethics.

The two ministers will be given the opportunity to make their submissions before the Standards Committee on Wednesday, after committee members unanimously adopted the Standards Commissioner’s report conclusions.

Clayton Bartolo and Clint Camilleri were found by the Standards Commissioner to have abused their power when Bartolo’s then-girlfriend Amanda Muscat was given a job she had no qualifications for, and did not do. The tourism and Gozo ministers respectively were found to have failed to administer public funds diligently, Standards Commissioner Joseph Azzopardi said in the report. Azzopardi found that Amanda Muscat, now Bartolo’s wife, was first promoted from being Bartolo’s personal assistance to his consultant with an increased salary of almost €62,000 and, later, this was upped to €68,000 when she moved to Camilleri’s ministry in 2021. The report found that Muscat did not do consultancy work. By and large she continued to work as Bartolo’s private secretary, with a consultant’s salary, even when she was employed with Camilleri.

In a brief 15-minute sitting on Thursday, Parliament’s Standards Committee, made up of Labour MPs Jonathan Attard and Andy Ellul, and PN MPs Ryan Callus and Mark Anthony Sammut, alongside Chairperson Speaker Anglu Farrugia unanimously adopted the report’s conclusions.

The next sitting will occur next Wednesday, 27th, at 11am, where the Ministers’ submissions will be discussed.

Bartolo and Camilleri now have the chance to either show up in person at the sitting, make their submissions in writing, or else refrain from doing anything at all.

Farrugia declared that there was no need to call for the Standards Commissioner to further clarify the conclusions.

Minister Attard established the PL’s position and said that the conclusions should be adopted, as it was an exercise conducted by the Commissioner, and there was no reason not to.

He also said that the Manual on Resourcing Policies and Procedures, mentioned in the report, is to be amended to include the Commissioner’s recommendations, and said that the Principal Permanent Secretary Tony Sultana will be preparing legal amendments to revise the relevant section of the manual – which the Speaker said is to be done promptly.

Callus and Sammut also agreed to adopt the report’s conclusions. The Speaker then declared the report adopted unanimously.

Farrugia said that the report speaks “very clearly,” and the decisive vote is ultimately up to the MPs. He also said that both parties, the Ministers, must be heard in their submissions.

Sammut suggested that before coming to a conclusion on which sanctions are to be imposed on the Ministers – if that sanction is the repayment of improperly used funds – the Committee should call on the Standards Commissioner to clarify before them the appropriate figure.

He said that this was because there have been varied versions in the public fora on exactly the amount of how much Muscat received as a salary.

Farrugia said the report speaks clearly, and he was not interested in what has been published publicly.

Callus quipped to say that it is important to take the Commissioner into consideration when deciding what actions should be taken – and if a repayment will be requested, the exact amount must be known.

He said that it is the Commissioner who conducted the investigation and has all the information on the amount. Callus said that when the Committee proceeds to sanctions, the Commissioner can calculate the figure clearly.

However, Speaker Farrugia said that the law is clear, and once the conclusions of a report are adopted, the process of submissions by the parties starts, then, the Committee can proceed to sanctions.

Minister Attard also said that before the Ministers’ submissions are made and discussed, figures cannot be established.