Updated 12.50pm

Clint Camilleri and Clayton Bartolo have been admonished while Bartolo will have to make a formal apology in parliament and refund excess money his wife earned as a fake consultant, a parliamentary committee resolved on Wednesday.

The two MPs were found guilty of abusing their ministerial power when they gave Bartolo's partner Amanda Muscat a top-paid consultancy job she did not do.

Opposition motions demanding Camilleri’s resignation as minister, that Bartolo to be suspended as an MP for 30 days and for Muscat to refund the full amount she earned as a consultant at Camilleri’s Gozo Ministry were voted down by the Speaker, who held a casting vote.

The Speaker also rejected a proposals put forward for Camilleri to personally apologise in the House. 

An admonishment is a stern warning by the Speaker to a member who has been found to be in breach of the rules of the House. 

Muscat will refund roughly €16,400, the Speaker said, with that amount having been calculated by Principal Permanent Secretary Tony Sultana as the excess payment she received. 

The civil service was roped in to calculate the amount at the suggestion of Standards Commissioner Joseph Azzopardi, who told the committee his office was not qualified to calculate it. 

The sanctions were decided by committee members on Wednesday morning, after they had agreed to adopt a report into the ministerial abuse of power at a meeting held last week. 

According to the report, Bartolo’s then-girlfriend and private secretary Amanda Muscat was first promoted to the tourism minister’s consultant with a salary of almost €62,000 in 2020. She was then promoted again as a consultant to the Gozo minister with an even higher salary of €68,000.

In practice, Muscat continued to work as Bartolo’s private secretary, but on a much higher, consultant’s pay, even when she was, on paper, employed by Camilleri. 

Bartolo and Muscat have since tied the knot. 

As calls for the ministers’ resignations grew, Robert Abela stood firm behind Bartolo and Camilleri - both of whom are considered loyal allies to the prime minister. 

But on Tuesday, Bartolo was made to resign and kicked out of Labour’s parliamentary group by Prime Minister Robert Abela, after Times of Malta sent questions about him and his wife being the subject of an anti-money laundering investigation. 

Following the committee meeting, government members said the committee decisions were proportionate and a fair punishment. Opposition members, on the other hand, said they were dissatisfied and concerned the scandal was just the tip of the iceberg. 

Muscat: 'I reiterate my innocence'

All three key subjects of the standards commissioner's report - Bartolo, Muscat and Camilleri - made written submissions to the committee ahead of Wednesday's session. 

Camilleri, who has insisted he did nothing wrong, said in a three-page letter that he had "personal reservations" about some of the shortcomings identified by the commissioner but that he accepted the conclusions. 

"At no point was it my intention to fall short of the ethical standards expected of me," he wrote. "If I let the people down, I must now work with even more diligence."

Bartolo's letter emphasised that the commissioner had not recommended that the matter be referred to the police or mentioned the words "fraud" or "phantom job". 

He said he had "no problem" offering a "sincere" apology and that he would accept whatever sanction the committee deemed fit. 

Muscat, Bartolo's wife, submitted a letter she sent to the principal permanent secretary and enclosed a bank draft for €16,407.72. 

She insisted she was innocent and that the refund was "not an admission of guilt."

"I once again reiterate my innocence because, as the commissioner noted, everything that happened was in line with regulations and policies in place at that time," she said.