Labour’s two representatives on parliament’s standards committee can draw their own conclusions about a report into two of their colleagues’ abuse of power, Prime Minister Robert Abela has said.
Abela declined to say whether MPs Jonathan Attard and Andy Ellul, who sit on the committee, have been told how to vote when they meet later on Thursday to discuss a damning report into ministers Clayton Bartolo and Clint Camilleri.
“It would be prudent to wait for the outcome of the committee meeting and allow the individual members to reach their own conclusions,” Abela told Times of Malta on Wednesday evening.
The parliamentary committee will be meeting at 4pm. It is effectively government-controlled, as the committee has two members from either side of the House with the Speaker holding a casting vote.
The scandal revolves around a fake job as a ministry consultant given to Bartolo’s wife, Amanda Muscat.
Muscat, who met Bartolo when she was his secretary, was made a consultant and given a hefty pay rise before being transferred, on paper, to Camilleri’s Gozo Ministry.
The transfer – and job – were effectively fictitious, the standards commissioner concluded. Muscat continued to work as Bartolo’s secretary while employed as a consultant and never did any work for the Gozo Ministry.
Both ministers abused their power in granting her the €68,000-a-year job, the commissioner said as he referred them to parliament’s standards committee for sanction.
According to the Standards in Public Life Act, the committee can choose to adopt the report’s conclusions, reject them or request further information.
If it adopts the report, ministers Bartolo and Camilleri will be given the opportunity to present submissions to the committee, which will then be empowered to sanction them.
Sanctions can range from a simple admonishment to demanding an apology of an MP, demanding repayment of any money that was “improperly used” or recommend “any other measure” it deems fit.
Abela has already made it clear that he has no intention to sack Bartolo or Camilleri.
In a Sunday Times of Malta interview, he insisted that he saw no reason for the two ministers to resign, though he also emphasised that it was his decision to sack Muscat from her lucrative consultancy job.
Abela also sought to downplay the scandal during that interview, saying the issue centred on Muscat’s job title and a “€16,000” salary discrepancy. In reality, the discrepancy was of roughly €22,000, with the prime minister citing Muscat’s salary net of taxes.
Bartolo and Camilleri have both insisted they did nothing wrong.
The tourism minister has said calls for him to resign are based on political “spin” and that his wife had the necessary experience to serve as a top ministry consultant. The Gozo minister has insisted that no government policies were breached.
Speaking outside parliament on Wednesday evening, Abela placed emphasis on a secondary conclusion of the commissioner’s report – that a public sector manual on hiring persons of trust does not include criteria for appointing consultants or their salaries.
Abela said he wants that manual, the Manual on Resourcing Policies and Procedures, to be amended to include the commissioner’s recommendations irrespective of whether or not the parliamentary committee adopts the report.
He said he has instructed the principal permanent secretary, Tony Sultana, to prepare legal amendments to revise the relevant section of the manual.