Former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said that he has ‘nothing to hide’ following the recent revelations regarding his consultancy fees, and also tried to shine the spotlight on PN politicians claiming that there are ‘two weights and two measures’ being used.

Muscat has come under fire after reports read that he received €60,000 in consultancy fees in 2020 from a Swiss company that had received millions from Steward Health Care in 2018.

Muscat was paid €60,000 in 2020, the Times of Malta reported, with the first payment having been made two months after he stepped down as Prime Minister for the country.  The money paid to Muscat came from two companies that shared an address in Switzerland and were run by lawyer Wasay Bhatti, in the form of four payments, the report read. Two came from Spring X Media and two from Accutor AG, the report continued. The payments by Accutor to Muscat were made under the terms of an indefinite consultancy contract between him and Spring X Media. Payments stopped in summer 2020.

The Swiss company in question, the report read, received millions from Steward during the company's takeover of the hospital concession from Vitals Global Healthcare. It reports that Steward Health Care had wired €3.6 million to Accutor, the majority of which was paid on 20 February 2018, the same day Steward declared it finalised the PPP agreement to take over the three hospitals in Malta. Following the revelations, Occupy Justice called for immediate investigation.

Repubblika has also targeted Muscat, saying: “No one believes that Muscat got the money for work he carried out after he resigned as Prime Minister. No one believes that it was only a coincidence that the Pakistani lawyer who paid him was also asked for advice by Yorgen Fenech on how to secretly transfer money out of 17 Black.” Aquilina said Repubblika expects the impunity that Muscat enjoys to end, “just as we want the impunity enjoyed by Konrad Mizzi to end. We will no longer tolerate banal excuses by Gafa and the FCID.”

Muscat has said that the work he carried out was not in any way related to projects related to the Maltese Government. "It was spread over a number of countries, in different sectors, and is fully documented," he had said when the story broke.

Muscat published a Facebook post on Tuesday saying: “There can be all the necessary investigations since I have nothing to hide."

“It seems that those making accusations against me are implying that because I carried out work abroad for a company that could have had connections with interests in Malta, this amounts to corruption. This, when the assignments I carried out have nothing to do with the Maltese Government,” he said.

“Using the same benchmark, I cannot understand how nobody ever protested against other people. For example, Dr Austin Gatt, who after stepping down from his Ministerial post took up roles in a group of companies that has a direct relation with at least two entities that were under his direct responsibility for many years. Or Tonio Fenech, who was responsible for financial services for many years but then gave services to companies in the financial services sector. Or Claudio Grech, who was part of the Ministry which negotiated Smart City on behalf of the Maltese Government and then was appointed CEO of Smart City. This to mention only a few, and without going in the realm of legal services.”

“But there are clearly two weights and two measures. The authorities should do their job according to the rules, which include us not getting to know what is going on through particular channels, since it undermines trust in the system,” Muscat concluded.