Civil Liberties Minister Helena Dalli is standing by her Chief of Staff Ronnie Pellegrini, claiming that those who have interpreted Mr Pellegrini’s as an endorsement for preferential treatment for Labour Party supporters are incorrect.

Dr Dalli insisted that Mr Pellegrini was instead speaking about Family Minister Michael Farrugia’s proposed investigation into the claims.

In comments to The Malta Independent, Minister Dalli did not for a second accept the clear and widespread interpretation of her Chief of Staff’s comment, “Hekk ghandu jkun!” (That’s how it should be!) directly under the headline of an article he posted on Facebook with the headline, “Jghid li haddiema Laburisti huma ppreferuti f’San Vincenz” ([Denis Tanti] says that Labourite workers are preferred in St Vincent).

In her comments, Dr Dalli said that she read the online article saying that Dr Michael Farrugia would be investigating the allegations being made by Denis Tanti, the ex-advisor to St Vincent De Paul Hospital’s CEO, Josianne Cutajar. When it was insisted by this newsroom that the comment related to preferential treatment, and not the investigation, Dr Dalli interjected, “According to whose interpretation?”

This newsroom pointed out that it was widely accepted that Mr Pellegrini’s comment referred to Labour supporters, to which Dr Dalli defensively replied, “Everyone? Everyone, excuse me, I read the article, I read the comment and I understood that it meant that that’s how it should be regarding the Minister’s commitment to investigating any allegations.”

On Tuesday evening, Dr Dalli released a statement to the same end as her most recent comments to this newspaper in reaction to a statement earlier that day by the Solidarjeta Haddiema Partit Nazzjonalista, which had called for Mr Pellegrini to be fired over the comment.

Mr Tanti, who made the initial allegations that sparked this controversy was speaking out about corruption surrounding St Vincent de Paul, particularly Dr Josianne Cutajar who Mr Tanti claimed had a conflict of interest after being allowed to continue her private practice while still getting paid €68,000 for her job.

He substantiated claims of corruption by listing a number of cases of absence from work, negligence in care of elderly patients, verbal abuse and a case of squatting. Mr Tanti also claimed to have emails from the CEO telling him to keep his mouth shut about the situation, adding that only PN sympathisers were being punished for these abuses.

The government had reacted that the Social Solidarity Ministry as well as the Parliamentary Secretariat for Human Rights of Persons with Disabilities and Active Ageing noted that Mr Tanti had already made these allegations before and the Ombudsman is investigating them along with their full cooperation.

Meanwhile, the aforementioned Mr Pellegrini is also no stranger to controversy ever since his appointment as Chief of Staff at the Civil Liberties Ministry. This newsroom had pressed the Minister about Mr Pellegrini’s role back in June 2015 to which she replied equally as evasively as she did yesterday.

Dr Dalli had said back then that “he works in the secretariat” despite his appointment to the ministry being brought to the public eye when the Department of Information had seemingly mistakenly listed him as the ministry’s new chief of staff. The listing was promptly removed after the media picked up on it at the time.

It was only confirmed that he was indeed the ministry’s Chief of Staff in November 2015 after it was revealed in answer to a totally unrelated Freedom of Information Request filed by this newspaper. It was revealed that the former Lorry Sant henchman was given the role on a government Scale 3 pay of €35,000 a year.