Updated 8.10pm with budget comments below.
Sixteen student organisations have joined calls for ministers Clayton Bartolo and Clint Camilleri to resign following damning conclusions about their involvement in securing lucrative consultancy jobs for Bartolo’s partner in each of their ministries.
In a report earlier this month, the Standards Commissioner found that the tourism and Gozo ministers abused their power and breached ministerial ethics when employing Amanda Muscat in a job she was not qualified for and did not do.
The report, which concluded that the two had misspent funds when they handed Amanda Muscat a €68k ministerial consultancy job, was unanimously endorsed by Parliament’s standards committee last week.
But despite calls for the pair to resign, Prime Minister Robert Abela has backed the two ministers, calling a subsequent apology from Bartolo “sufficient” and saying the pair will continue in their ministerial roles.
On Monday, the University Students’ Council (KSU) and fifteen other student organisations, said the scandal “exposes yet again the deep-rooted lack of accountability in Maltese politics” and added their calls for the ministers to resign.
Opposition leader Bernard Grech and PN MPs have called for the two ministers to resign, while rule-of-law NGO Repubblika has filed a police complaint asking the commissioner to charge Muscat, Bartolo and Camilleri in court.
Noting that neither Bartolo nor Camilleri had offered their resignations, the students said that despite the “blatant abuse of power” demonstrated in the recent scandal, Abela had “failed to demand accountability.”
“Self-regulation and a toothless accountability framework are failing Malta. This scandal is just the latest in a string of political abuses that erode public trust and normalise impunity,” the KSU said in a statement.
“Malta is owed ethical governance and transparency from our elected representatives. We are entitled to leadership that upholds the rule of law and prioritises the collective good over personal gain."
The students said the recent events had also “shone a light on the limits of the [Standards] Commissioner’s role,” which, it said, relied on political will to enforce his judgements - “something which Malta's leaders have repeatedly failed to show”.
The KSU and other student organisations called for the commissioners’s role to be strengthened and for the “immediate resignation" of Bartolo and Camilleri.
Last week, a crowd of protesters led by the PN gathered outside parliament to voice their anger at the scandal and demand the two ministers resign.
On Sunday, ADPD slammed Abela's "anything goes" approach to the scandal, with the party's chairperson Sandra Gauci saying the PM's "weakness" in addressing such abuses was contributing to a "culture of corruption and impunity," and resulting in young people's disillusionment with local politics and a future in the country."
Monday’s statement was endorsed by student organisations SDM, MKSA, MHSA, MIRSA, ESA, GħMU, UESA, Betapsi, GħSL, ALLT, SACES, SĦS, ICTSA, ELSA and Studenti Attivisti.
Prime minister ignores controversy during parliamentary debate
Opposition leader Bernard Grech referred to the controversy when parliament on Monday evening discussed the budget estimates of the Office of the Prime Minister.
The prime minister he said, claimed to demand the highest standards, yet he was failing miserably and was absent in areas which included accountability.
Grech read extracts of the Standard Commissioner's report and said the ministers had breached their duty to be of service to the public. Instead of the common good, they had looked for their personal interests. This was fraud involving public funds.
The prime minister ignored the controversy however, focusing his remarks on the Budget measures. He however accused the PN of not submitting its accounts in terms of the party funding law.