Updated 4.55pm with PN statement

Ministers Clayton Bartolo and Clint Camilleri are poised to be sanctioned by parliament over a workplace transfer involving Bartolo's secretary, who he has since married.

Parliament’s committee for standards in public life has been handed a report about the matter by standards tzar Joseph Azzopardi, complainant Arnold Cassola said on Wednesday.

While the report has not been made public and details about its findings are thin on the ground, the referral is in itself a sign that the commissioner found evidence of misconduct by at least one of the two ministers.

Under the Standards in Public Life Act, the parliamentary committee is only given copies of reports that find evidence of some form of ethical breach. 

Cassola, an academic and independent political candidate, said he was informed on Wednesday by Azzopardi's office that the investigation has been referred to the parliamentary committee. 

PN: Report should be published

In a statement, the PN said its committee members Ryan Callus and Mark Anthony Sammut have asked the parliamentary committee to meet urgently to discuss the report's findings.

Describing the report as one concerning "favouritism and abuse of power" by the two ministers, the PN said they wanted the report made public. 

The standards probe began at Cassola's request, following reports by The Shift into Amanda Muscat’s workplace arrangements back in February 2022. 

Muscat, who served as Bartolo’s private secretary, was quietly transferred to Camilleri’s Gozo Ministry but in reality did not really work there, The Shift alleged.

A Gozo Ministry spokesperson initially claimed that Muscat “is not employed at the Tourism Ministry or at the Gozo Ministry, nor at any other government entity, ministry or department”.

But the news outlet published a screenshot of civil service employment records noting that Muscat was a person of trust within Camilleri’s private secretariat.

Bartolo and Muscat got married this past summer, in a lavish wedding held at Manoel Island.

Cassola had asked the commissioner to investigate whether Muscat had benefited from nepotism in securing a job within Bartolo’s private secretariat, why Camilleri was allowing one of his persons of trust to not report to work at his ministry, and whether the two ministers breached parliamentary ethics in the affair.