PN says Abela must dismiss Camilleri, Bartolo after report's adoption; PL files complaint against PN

The Nationalist and Labour Parties took aim at each other following the adoption of the Standards Commissioner's conclusions in the ethics breach case regarding ministers Clayton Bartolo and Clint Camilleri.

In a statement, the PN said that now that the report has been adopted, and Bartolo and Camilleri have been found guilty of breaching the Code of Ethics for Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries, "Prime Minister Robert Abela has no option but to dismiss the two Ministers if they do not resign voluntarily."

The Nationalist Party recalled that for weeks - since this scandal was exposed - "the Prime Minister and the Ministers involved have shirked responsibility, claiming they would wait for the Committee's conclusions."

"The report by the Commissioner for Standards in Public Life - whose findings have now been endorsed by the Parliamentary Standards Committee - revealed that Minister for Tourism and Public Cleanliness Clayton Bartolo's partner, now wife, was appointed as a consultant with a €70,000 salary despite lacking qualifications. Moreover, she did not perform the role during her tenure but continued working as the Minister's Personal Secretary while receiving a consultant's salary."

"In this case, for reasons unknown, Robert Abela is applying a double standard. While he refuses to dismiss Clayton Bartolo and Clint Camilleri, he immediately sacked former Minister Justyne Caruana as soon as the report in her case was published, even before the Committee convened to decide whether to adopt it. Aside from the fraud involving public funds in the phantom job of Minister Clayton Bartolo's wife, the Government has also been caught in a web of lies and inconsistencies in its attempt to defend its Ministers."

"On two separate occasions, Abela claimed he was the one who dismissed Amanda Muscat, Minister Bartolo's wife, contradicting Minister Clint Camilleri, whose Head of Secretariat testified under oath that he terminated her contract because her work with the Ministry was completed."

"The Maltese public, which gathered en masse in Valletta on Monday to protest against this latest scandal involving the Labour Government, rightly demands to know who is telling the truth and who is lying. People have the right to know whether Michael Buhagiar, Head of Secretariat at the Ministry for Gozo, gave false testimony under oath to protect his Minister or whether it is Prime Minister Abela who is lying to cover up the fact that all this occurred with his blessing. It was Abela himself who approved the phantom employment of Minister Clayton Bartolo's then-girlfriend, now wife, as a consultant and the allowances she received on top of her massive salary. Yet, in the same breath, Abela now boasts that he was the one who dismissed her."

PL responds

The Nationalist Party preaches about ethical values while resorting to lies at the first opportunity, the PL said in response.

No Parliamentary Committee has found any ministers guilty of any fraud, "contrary to the false implications being made by the Nationalist Party with its usual obsession with fake news," the Labour Party said in reaction.

"The term "fraud," just like the term "phantom job," are invented by Bernard Grech and do not appear in any sentence or page of the report by the Commissioner for Standards," the PL said.

The PL said that the Nationalist Party "assumes it can use the Commissioner for Standards as it pleases, even going so far as to attribute statements that were never said by the Chief Justice Emeritus."

"In light of this deception, Minister Jonathan Attard and Parliamentary Secretary Andy Ellul, as government representatives on the Standards Committee, have written a formal complaint to the Speaker of the House, requesting an investigation and appropriate action regarding the way the PN is attempting to mislead. It is astonishing how the PN pontificates on ethical values while lying at the first opportunity."

"Instead of continuing to invent fake news, Bernard Grech would do better to look around him and identify which of his MPs fail to show up for work while being paid with public funds. That would be the only true case of two weights, two measures," the PL said