Prime Minister Robert Abela said in an interview that the thing he sees most from the latest ethics scandal which has hit the government is “the PN’s hypocrisy”, as he said that there are two PN MPs who are not reporting for their government job as they should.

Minister for Tourism Clayton Bartolo and Minister for Gozo Clint Camilleri were found to have breached ethics by the Standards Commissioner Joseph Azzopardi last week. Azzopardi’s report stated that both ministers failed to administer public funds diligently after Bartolo's then-girlfriend Amanda Muscat was given a job within Camilleri’s ministry which she had no qualifications for, and did not do.

In an interview with Times of Malta Deputy Editor Mario Xuereb, Abela was asked if the ministers would be asked to resign, following the precedent set by the resignations of Justyne Caruana and Rosianne Cutajar for ethics breaches of their own.

“Absolutely not, because the circumstances in each case are different and distinct,” Abela replied.

He added: “The facts are not the same. In the case of ministerial responsibilities held by Clayton Bartolo and Clint Camilleri, I’ve already commented that the circumstances of their cases do not warrant them stepping down from their ministerial duties.”

The Prime Minister also reiterated that it was he who had terminated Amanda Muscat’s contract in 2021, three years prior to the complaint originally filed by independent politician Arnold Cassola.

He said that the report fails to mention this since he was never called for questioning by the commissioner and, if he had, Abela would have told him this. Abela was also asked if Muscat would be asked to reimburse the money, but he dodged the question and insisted that the controversy revolves around a €16,000 discrepancy in her pay.

While acknowledging that the report has now reached parliament for discussion, Abela turned his guns onto the PN.

“What I see in all of this is the Nationalist Party’s hypocrisy. They’re organising a protest while key members of their parliamentary group are employed by the Maltese government and consistently fail to show up at their workplaces,” Abela said.

A request for investigation on this was very recently filed with the Commissioner for Standards, he continued.

Abela went on to give two specific examples which were the subject of complaints to the Standards Commissioner by Neville Gafa, who used to be employed by the Office of the Prime Minister during Joseph Muscat’s tenure leading the country.

 “PN MP Toni Bezzina is employed with the Public Works Department and receives an annual salary of €51,000. Yet, consistently, he fails to attend his workplace and provides no service,” Abela said.

He went on to add that Bezzina, “only attends to collect his fuel voucher, which he uses to fill his car with public funds without providing even a cent’s worth of service.”

Abela acknowledged that though Amanda Muscat worked her full hours there was no doubt she fell short of fulfilling some responsibilities, with a “discrepancy” between what she was paid a private secretary and the figure she received as a consultant, which was an excess of €68,000 per year. Whilst he “ensured” that this “excess” was addressed, he pointed out that in Bezzina’s case, “we’re talking about €51,000 annually over a long period of years. For someone who has been working much longer than 10 years that adds up to half a million euros.”

Abela went on to state that a report has been filed with regards to Bezzina as well another PN MP – David Agius. With regards to Agius, Abela said that the MP, who is also Deputy Speaker, had “spent years without reporting to his workplace… David Agius now attends as he sees fit, in a reduced capacity.” He noted that questions on this absenteeism were raised in the past.

When it was pointed out that Maltese MPs are allowed to have such arrangements and maintain a balance between the work of an MP and their full-time job, with a reform for full-time MP’s still in the pipeline, Abela responded, “It’s not about spending years away from your workplace because you assume the parliamentary role gives you some prerogative to skip your job. That’s abuse – blatant abuse of the parliamentary title.”

“I understand there’s a specific exemption during parliamentary sittings. But this doesn’t mean you skip your workplace for the entire week,” he said.

When Abela concluded that the Committee for Standards in Public Life must decide whether to adopt the report and whether any additional measures should be taken, in tandem with Bartolo’s stance taken last Friday, Xuereb pointed out that there is a governmental majority on the committee, apart from the Speaker’s ability to veto which tends to lean towards the government’s favour. Abela replied that Xuereb was mistaken since the committee has two government and two opposition MPs

Additionally, he said, “I don’t think it’s fair to suggest that about the Speaker. This reminds me of the opposition leader’s attitude when the Speaker was re-appointed at the start of this legislature. Disparaging comments were made against the Speaker back then.”

He went on to point out, “Similar comments were directed at the Commissioner for Standards in Public Life, Judge Emeritus Joseph Azzopardi, who was previously criticised as being ineffective when we proposed him. Now, because the report suits their narrative, he is suddenly agreeable. Soon they’ll revert to saying he’s ineffective or claim he’s in the government’s pocket, as is often the rhetoric aimed at the Speaker.”