The Nationalist Party has said that the Commissioner for Standards in Public Life has dismissed allegations made against three of its MPs: Toni Bezzina, Robert Cutajar, and Ivan Castillo.
The trio had been subject to allegations that they were not showing up for work at the government entities that they are employed with.
Prime Minister Robert Abela had emphasised on Bezzina in particular: he had said in an interview that “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.”
But a complaint filed with the Standards Commissioner by former government official and now fervent pro-PL blogger Neville Gafa was dismissed, with the Commissioner finding no wrongdoing or breach of ethics.
The PN said that Abela must now apologise to Bezzina in particular.
“Just as Robert Abela publicly led a campaign to attack and tarnish the name of a Nationalist MP by falsely accusing him of not showing up to work, he should now publicly apologise to Toni Bezzina, the party said in a statement.
It noted that the same Standards Commissioner found nothing irregular in the cases of two other Nationalist Party MPs who were subject to similar allegations “from the Labour Party and its fascist faction.”
In the case of Castillo and Cutajar, the PN said that the Commissioner found no grounds for the complaints and concluded there was not even sufficient basis to initiate a formal investigation.
The PN noted that in Toni Bezzina’s case, it had been alleged that he was not attending work as a government-employed architect and that he carried out private work during office hours. However, in a report published earlier this week, the Commissioner found no evidence to substantiate these claims and closed the case.
“The Commissioner for Standards noted that neither Robert Abela nor Neville Gafà – who submitted the complaints – provided any evidence to support their accusations,” the PN said.
It said that the similar accusations made against Robert Cutajar and Ivan Castillo were also found to be completely baseless by the Commissioner, who decided not to pursue the complaints any further.
“This entire episode clearly shows that whenever Robert Abela finds himself backed into a corner, instead of addressing the corruption surrounding him, he attempts to smear others in order to divert attention from himself,” the party said.
“In fact, the complaints against the PN MPs were all submitted in November last year within the span of a few days – precisely during the same week when Abela was facing an unprecedented crisis that forced him to remove a senior Cabinet Minister,” it continued.
This crisis was linked to a fraud case involving Amanda Muscat, wife of former Tourism Minister Clayton Bartolo, who was exposed for having been given a phantom consultancy post in the ministry of Bartolo’s close colleague, Clint Camilleri.
The scandal led to Bartolo’s resignation both as Minister and as a member of the Labour Parliamentary Group. The same case was investigated by the Commissioner for Standards, who found both Clayton Bartolo and Clint Camilleri guilty of abuse of power and breach of the code of ethics, the PN said.
“Yet despite the Minister for Gozo being found just as guilty as Clayton Bartolo, Robert Abela continues to defend Clint Camilleri and has failed to remove him from office,” it concluded.