Carmen Sammut, former head of secretariat for Rebecca Buttigieg, “should be contacted for redress”, the NAO recommended.
Sammut, a person of trust in Buttigieg’s secretariat, should never have had any executive power. Yet, parliamentary secretary Buttigieg allowed her to do as she pleased and millions of our taxes were squandered. A series of entertainment events meant to cost the state €2.5 million ended up costing almost double – €4.6 million, without the necessary approvals.
Nobody knows exactly where that money went. The NAO couldn’t figure out what could possibly have cost that much. The NAO found total chaotic profligacy but also faced obstruction, secrecy and blatant lies.
The OPM refused to divulge who were the persons responsible for the organisation of the lavish festival. The OPM claimed the festival was planned by a voluntary organisation together with a local entertainment company and that the government’s role was solely to provide assistance and financial support.
The NAO found this was absolutely false. Nowhere in the documentation analysed was there “any reference” to that voluntary organisation. When caught, the OPM pinned the blame on the permanent secretary: “…the permanent secretary responsible for the event was fully aware of the approach and approved it accordingly, understanding that not proceeding would have jeopardised the event’s success.”
That was another lie. “This contrasted with the picture portrayed by the documentation,” the NAO politely commented. The permanent secretary wasn’t in charge. Sammut was. She took all the decisions, issued all the orders, she even had merchandise delivered straight to her. She was still in possession of invoices at least five months after the event.
Sammut had carte blanche from Buttigieg to monitor calls for quotations, recommend service providers, certify invoices, enter into agreements costing hundreds of thousands of euros.
Sammut should never have been doing any of this – that’s in direct breach of Section 7 of the Manual on Resourcing Policies and Procedures.
The permanent secretary was reduced to simply rubber-stamping Sammut’s orders and then blamed for the absolute mess she created. “The permanent secretary’s role,” the NAO noted, “was mostly limited to issuing local purchase orders upon the head of secretariat’s request.” Those payments verge on the criminal.
On August 2, 2023, Sammut personally agreed to pay €77,700 out of our taxes for just two nights of accommodation at a local hotel for an international singer and her group. That would pay three nurses for a full year. Sammut had no approval for this. She only requested approval retrospectively on August 8.
When challenged about the obscene spend, the answer was “that’s where the singer wanted to stay”. No documentation was provided to support the claim. The agreement between the artist and Buttigieg’s secretariat did not include any such clause.
That same singer cost us €1 million. Sammut agreed to pay the artist €300,000 for her participation in a single event. Another €700,000 were paid in production fees for the singer’s performance. Those two agreements, amounting to €1 million, were not endorsed.
Buttigieg’s secretariat claimed “a direct order approval was obtained for the expense but this was not traced”. Even more damning, the NAO couldn’t find any fiscal receipts. Not issuing fiscal receipts is a crime all on its own.
The NAO couldn’t find the money collected from ticket sales. Not a single cent. Where did that money go?- Kevin Cassar
In an attempt to conceal those obscene contracts, Buttigieg’s secretariat failed to publish them as every government entity is obliged to do.
There was worse. Some of the performances and parties held during the 10-day event were against a fee. People paid for tickets. But the NAO couldn’t find the money collected from ticket sales. Not a single cent. Where did that money go? Buttigieg’s secretariat claimed the money was given away as a donation to a voluntary organisation. The NAO found no records of “how this revenue was recorded and distributed”.
Sammut is responsible. So is Buttigieg. If Buttigieg’s claims of the event’s huge success are true, ticket sales must have generated thousands of euros. Yet, the whole sum simply disappeared.
That money doesn’t belong to Sammut. Nor to Buttigieg. It belongs to us.
At least, we should know who decided to give it away, to whom and how much. The desperate attempts by the OPM to conceal all this from the NAO and the public raise serious concerns. Surely something as suspicious as this should be investigated by the police.
The NAO’s report raises many more burning questions. Why did the OPM hide invoices amounting to €466,747 from the NAO? The NAO commented that it was “never informed that a considerable number of invoices was still pending”. Why did the OPM refuse to identify Sammut and the others responsible for this highly suspicious enterprise costing the state almost €5 million?
Maybe because the people who benefited from those millions are Labour’s favourites. Sammut split procurement into smaller chunks “to circumvent the requirement for a tender”. The NAO found several instances where quotations were only obtained two days before the services were required, implying they “were very likely obtained merely to conceal the bypassing of procurement regulations”.
Why did the OPM make it so difficult for the NAO? Why did it delay replying to its requests? Why did it lie to the NAO and claim the event was organised by a voluntary organisation? Why did it adamantly refuse to reveal the identity of those responsible for the brazen looting of the state?
The OPM knows exactly what was going on. This was a highly suspicious enterprise with flagrant breach of regulations, concealment of contracts, irregular procurement, failure to issue fiscal receipts, disappearing ticket revenues and “service providers selected directly beforehand” – all in the hands of Sammut, who should never have had any executive powers at all.
Buttigieg’s secretariat now falls directly under the responsibility of Robert Abela.
The NAO has called for redress. Instead of calling in the police to investigate the missing money, Abela shields Sammut and Buttigieg. But the hard-working citizens of this country demand that both of them are held accountable.
It won’t happen tomorrow, or next week or maybe next year. But happen it will – good things come to those who wait.
Kevin Cassar is a professor of surgery.