In a press conference at the Parliament building on Thursday, Shadow Minister for Public Administration, Public Broadcasting, and the Fight Against Diabetes Claudette Buttigieg; Shadow Minister for Tourism Mario de Marco; and Shadow Minister for Gozo Alex Borg, stated that two Government Ministers are “embroiled in fraud, Ministers Clayton Bartolo and Clint Camilleri should resign or be dismissed by the Prime Minister.”
They highlighted that the main conclusion of the Standards Commissioner, in a report published today was that “the wife of Minister Clayton Bartolo was paid for consultancy work she did not carry out, with the complicity of Minister Clint Camilleri.”
The report by the Commissioner for Standards in Public Life, which was presented to the Parliamentary Committee for Standards in Public Life and published this afternoon, also found that “the partner – now wife – of the Minister for Tourism and Public Cleanliness, was chosen as a consultant without qualifications. Furthermore, during her appointment, she continued her previous role as the Minister’s Personal Secretary while receiving a consultant’s salary,” the PN said.
The report found that “this arrangement first took place with Minister Clayton Bartolo and later with Minister for Gozo and Planning Clint Camilleri.”
The PN spokespersons noted that “this case is identical to that involving the partner of former Minister Justyne Caruana, Daniel Bogdanovic, who was awarded a contract for work he did not perform, and similar to the case of Rosianne Cutajar, who, in her own words, took a consultancy contract to pig out.”
In both instances, former Minister Caruana and former Parliamentary Secretary Cutajar were forced to resign by Prime Minister Robert Abela, the PN said.
The PN went on to say that “Ministers Clint Camilleri and Clayton Bartolo were so aware that their case was similar to Bogdanovic’s that the transfer on paper of Minister Bartolo’s wife from his ministry to the Ministry for Gozo occurred three weeks after the complaint on Bogdanovic’s case, and the contract with Minister Clint Camilleri was terminated two weeks after the report on the Bogdanovic case was published.”
In his report, the Standards Commissioner concludes that Clayton Bartolo “breached the Code of Ethics for Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries regarding the sense of duty, which should not be motivated by personal, familial, friendly, or close acquaintance gains. The Code also requires ministers to exercise the highest level of diligence in the expenditure of public funds”, the PN said.
In the case of Minister Clint Camilleri, the Commissioner concludes that he breached the Code concerning public fund expenditure.
The PN speakers pointed out that “the report also lists significant inconsistencies between the testimonies of Minister Bartolo’s wife, the ministers, and the heads of their secretariats, suggesting that someone or several individuals may have lied under oath. It also implies that the Office of the Prime Minister was aware that Minister Bartolo’s wife continued her role as Personal Secretary to her eventual husband, given that emails from the Prime Minister’s Office to Minister Bartolo during her employment with Minister Camilleri continued to copy her.”
The speakers maintained that, “in the face of yet another public funds fraud scandal – where once again, public funds are used to benefit the Minister himself through his wife or partner – the least expected response, using Robert Abela’s own measure, is for Minister Clint Camilleri and Minister Clayton Bartolo to resign or be dismissed by the Prime Minister.”
Photo: PN