Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri is doubly guilty in a scandal involving the wife of fellow minister Clayton Bartolo, the Nationalist Party said on Wednesday as it called for his resignation.

“Clint Camilleri not only defrauded the public, but he is also guilty of a cover-up. Not only did he assist Clayton Bartolo in defrauding the public of €70,000, but he also acted as a shield so Bartolo and his partner could benefit from it,” PN general secretary Michael Piccinino said.

Piccinino and PN MP Alex Borg were addressing the media outside the Gozo Ministry.

Camilleri and Bartolo are both under pressure after parliament’s standards commissioner ruled that they both abused their power as ministers when they gave Bartolo’s now-wife, Amanda Muscat, a job as a highly paid consultant.

Muscat was Bartolo’s personal secretary but was then employed as a person of trust, first within Bartolo’s secretariat and then Camilleri’s. But standards commissioner Joseph Azzopardi found evidence that Muscat continued to work as a secretary for Bartolo even when she was, on paper, a €68,000-a-year Gozo Ministry consultant.

During Wednesday’s press conference, the PN hammered those points home.

“This is the Ministry of Gozo, where Minister Clayton Bartolo’s wife never set foot and didn’t put in a single hour of work, yet received almost €70,000 of public funds for consultancy work that was never provided, in an office that never existed in this Ministry,” Piccinino said.

They noted that Camilleri had first helped Bartolo “in defrauding the public of €70,000” and then “acted as a shield so Bartolo and his partner could benefit from it.”

Alex Borg and Michael Piccinino speaking outside the Gozo Ministry. Photo: PN

The minister had not even apologised for his behaviour, the PN said as it accused the minister of being arrogant.

“Since Clint Camilleri believes that Gozitans deserve no better than this, it is up to the Prime Minister to put the interests of Gozo and its people first and dismiss him. Until he does so, the Prime Minister is complicit and just as guilty as Clint Camilleri of fraud and cover-up,” the PN said.

“Until he does, Robert Abela will also be exposed as discriminating not only between the people and his ministers, but even between his own Ministers themselves.

“In the cases  of Justyne Caruana and Rosianne Cutajar Abela he acted one way. Will he do the same with Clint Camilleri and Clayton Bartolo?”