Tourism Minister Clayton Bartolo has said that he is ready to resign should the National Audit Office find that he had misused public funds to pay for his wedding costs.

However, he said that if the NAO clears him of wrongdoing, then he expects the administration of Green party ADPD – which has sought the NAO’s investigation – to “shoulder the responsibility” and resign en-masse.

ADPD over the weekend filed a formal request for the NAO to investigate whether Bartolo’s wedding was a misuse of public funds. The party said that there had been a substantial expenditure from public funds on Manoel Island for the Mediterranee Film Festival, which falls under the minister’s remit and the same venue was then used by Bartolo and his now-wife Amanda Muscat for his wedding.

Bartolo however denied the claim, saying that the wedding ceremony was held at Couvre Port, and not at the fort, as “someone alleged”. This is a public place and all necessary permits were obtained for the wedding ceremony to be held there, he said.

He said that for the civil ceremony, the sound, flowers, carpet, 150 seats and one table were paid for by “myself and my wife, as I will show the Auditor General when he requests the information.”

“There was no use of anything related to the Mediterrane Film Festival,” Bartolo said in a Facebook post on Sunday.

The minister took to Facebook again on Monday morning and said that having considered everything said in the public domain, he believes that this case is an ideal one where politicians should be held accountable for their words and the investigations they request.

“It is natural that if it is found that I misused public funds, as it being alleged, people will seek my resignation.  If this will be the case, I will not be the one to make the day’s government led by Prime Minister Robert Abela lose credibility,” he said.

“And so it is something just as natural that if it is found from all of this that there was nothing [against me], then the whole ADPD administration should resign. Since they decided to open an investigation as a party, now it should be the party administration to shoulder the responsibility,” he said.

Bartolo continued that he is so convinced of his innocence that he is appealing to the Auditor General to open his investigation as soon as possible, adding that he will fully cooperate with him.

“The time that everybody throws around requests for investigation with the aim of casting doubt or creating suspicion must come to an end,” he said. He added that anybody who throws the first stone shouldn’t hide his hand, but must shoulder political responsibility for their behaviour.

ADPD leader Sandra Gauci wrote her own post on her Facebook soon after, although she did not comment on the case itself.

“Dear Clayton, I never liked you,” she wrote. “I have been asking for your resignation since day one,” she added.

She questioned what is happening in the Malta Tourism Authority – which falls under Bartolo’s remit – and asked how an establishment called ‘9 Lives’  had been granted permits to place 18 rows of deckchairs at the Perched Beach in St Paul’s Bay.

St Paul’s Bay is the locality where Gauci was elected as a local councillor in the elections at the start of last month.

“I know because I had to go and investigate every day while listening to the music lounge and walking through the gravel-like sand you’ve lumped us with. My executive is not your business,” she said.

“Get your house in order and leave mine alone,” she concluded.