Following what she said was a “wholly false and malicious article by Caruana Galizia titled: ‘CHOGM 2015 task force led by PM’s friend Phyllis Muscat asked hotels for kickbacks on delegate bookings’, published on her blog ‘Running Commentary’, the CHOGM 2015 head of task force has proceeded to file a libel suit against the blogger.

In a statement, Mrs Muscat said that the allegation “that I demanded kickbacks is a malicious lie with the intent to cause grave harm to my reputation, as well as to distort people’s perception of the successful outcome of CHOGM 2015. Participants praised Malta for “the warm hospitality” and for hosting a “brilliantly organised event”.

“This fabricated story is one of many in a series of fake stories designed to be shared across all media platforms by others, with the aim of distorting people’s perception,” she said.

Any and all commission recouped from the profits of the hotels, were realised by the Government of

Malta, to offset part of the costs involved in the hosting of the event. The Taskforce asked hotel companies to electronically transfer the commission directly to the Government of Malta’s Consolidated

Fund at the Central Bank of Malta. No personal gain was made from any of these proceeds. These accounts were also audited by a licensed firm, she said