So now we know. Amanda Muscat’s real expertise isn’t in tourism. It isn’t in Gozitan policy-making. Nor is it in brewing coffee. Her real forte is organising cycling races in Equatorial Guinea deep in the middle of Africa. And she’s so good at it she was paid €50,000 in just six months.
To be honest, it wasn’t just Equatorial Guinea. She apparently “assisted” in cycling initiatives in Saudi Arabia and Qatar too.
It’s not surprising that the FIAU weren’t fooled by Muscat’s claims. In terms of fronts for laundering money, Equatorial Guinea cycling races is only slightly better than Joseph Muscat’s exotic birds. A former bank clerk earning €50,000 in six months was always going to arouse suspicion, especially if she happened to be the lover of another Labour star minister.
Nobody was going to be duped with that ridiculous story, especially when the beneficiary of that generous remuneration was the new wife of a minister suspiciously funnelling millions of taxpayers’ euros into fishy cycling organisations.
Well, it seems the FIAU’s suspicions are no longer just suspicions. The FIAU is so convinced those €50,000 that miraculously landed in Muscat’s bank account were kickbacks for her husband’s lavish cycling sponsorships that they’ve sent their report to the police. Of course, we know what the police will do – exactly the same thing they did with Konrad Mizzi’s and Keith Schembri’s report. They’ll diligently file it away in the topmost drawer of their cabinet, lock it securely and throw the key away.
We’ll be denied justice, again. But, at least, we know. For anybody can see what’s happened here. Bartolo recruited Italian cyclist Valerio Agnoli to coordinate activities between four different associations – Hayf Sports SL, Fundación Alberto Contador, Vatican-Cycling and RCS Sport/Giro d’Italia – and the Malta Tourism Authority (MTA).
Agnoli was ostensibly paid €20,000 but his contract included a special clause – 4.4. That clause entitled Agnoli to “the reimbursement for all pre-approved expenses reasonably incurred in the performance of the services”.
Agnoli’s contract entitled him to be refunded “all” expenses. No limits were included in his contract. He would be paid whatever sum of money he claimed as part of his work with the MTA.
Meanwhile, millions of euros were funnelled in “sponsorships” through Agnoli into those associations. Soon after that contract was signed, Muscat was hired by an Agnoli-linked company. Agnoli must have heard about her worldwide experience in cycling because she was instantly headhunted and recruited to “assist” in organising world-famous cycling events in Equatorial Guinea. And, for that, she received the juicy sum of €50,000 in just six months.
What is even more ludicrous than her hilarious story is that a ministry spokesperson tried to justify it with Times of Malta. “Amanda Muscat was given work on an assignment basis. This assignment has absolutely nothing to do with Malta and bore no relation with the work being done by Agnoli for the MTA.”
The spokesperson defended the minister’s wife: “Muscat was not employed with the said company but was providing an assignment-based service, as every private citizen has a right to do. Indeed, she fulfilled her tax obligations in accordance with her income.”
Why is a ministry spokesperson defending the minister’s wife? Why is he telling us she paid her taxes? How does the ministry know what Muscat did, what her work involved or that it bore “no relation with the work being done by Agnoli for the MTA”? The next thing we’ll know the ministry will pay her defence lawyers out of taxpayers’ money, when and if she’s indicted.
Why is a ministry spokesperson defending the minister’s wife?- Kevin Cassar
But the ministry went further. They came up with more hilarious statements to justify Agnoli’s odd arrangements with the MTA. “He has been pivotal in Visit Malta’s strategy to penetrate the cycling world,” the ministry insisted.
This is Malta – the most built-up, densely populated rock with the greatest number of vehicles per square metre on the planet and with the worst pollution on those traffic-jammed roads. What was Bartolo planning to penetrate next – the alpine skiing world?
Why spend millions of euros on “implementation of cycling tourism product within the Maltese islands”? Which fool chooses to come to Malta to cycle in traffic-gridlocked roads when just a stone’s throw away in Sicily they can cycle for hours without seeing a single vehicle?
Why fill your lungs with dangerous fumes of car exhaust in Malta when you can breathe clean air in Sicily’s hills? You wouldn’t. That’s why those multi-million sponsorships that Bartolo authorised for cycling organisations reek.
That’s also why Bartolo kept those sponsorship deals top secret. The nation was kept in the dark. But Nationalist MP Mark Anthony Sammut flagged those suspicious deals in parliament almost one year ago in December 2023. Prime Minister Robert Abela was alerted to those dodgy deals. Any half-decent leader would have looked into them, demanded an explanation of why millions of taxpayers’ money were being funnelled into a useless initiative.
But Abela did nothing. He kept silent. Now he’s claiming he never knew and that he only just found out about the dodgy deals. He’s trying to convince us he took action against Bartolo immediately he found out and after conducting “verifications”. Why didn’t he conduct verifications in December 2023 when he was warned?
Abela is frantic. He can’t even bring himself to declare publicly why he kicked Bartolo out, not just of cabinet, but of Labour’s parliamentary group too.
He’s still defending Carlo Micallef, the MTA’s CEO. When asked whether he’d sack Micallef, Abela replied: “Why should I? There is nothing irregular in the contract.”
He’s still defending Bartolo and Muscat. “I’m not saying that the questions put forward by the Times mean there was any wrongdoing,” he insisted. So why kick him out of the parliamentary group?
The police should have raided the ministry for tourism, impounded Bartolo’s and his wife’s electronic devices by now.
Abela should acknowledge the facts and order a comprehensive independent audit of all Bartolo’s sponsorships, including with Manchester United, and all expenditure at the Malta Film Commission, to uncover any more of his alleged abuse.
Instead, Abela keeps covering up for his colleagues, insisting there’s nothing wrong, nothing irregular, no fraud.
And we keep paying the price.
Kevin Cassar is a professor of surgery.