Labour MPs blocked the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) from asking Clayton Bartolo to reveal who his consultants were and how much they were paid.

The PAC is currently discussing a National Audit Office report into the film industry as well as the tourism and Gozo ministries’ accounts.

Former tourism minister Clayton Bartolo, appeared in front of the committee on Wednesday.

Bartolo was sacked from minister and kicked out of the PL parliamentary group last November following a double whammy of revelations both involving his wife Amanda Muscat, who was his girlfriend of the time. 

Clayton Bartolo attends the Public Accounts Committee. Photo: Jonathan Borg

Muscat was first found to have been given a lucrative consultancy by Bartolo's ministry. Times of Malta revealed weeks later that Muscat and Bartolo were being investigated for allegedly taking kickbacks. 

Over an hour into Bartolo’s testimony, PAC chair Darren Carabott asked the former PL minister who his consultants were and how much they were paid while he was in office.

“I think you are out of order,” Bartolo, who was a member of the PAC until he was removed from the PL parliamentary group, replied.

He argued that the identity of his consultants was beyond the scope of the committee.

Clayton Bartolo's wife, Amanda was given a lucrative consultancy when he was tourism minister. Photo: Facebook

Labour MPs Andy Ellul and Glenn Bedingfield agreed, saying that the PAC chair had no right to ask those questions.

“Stop using this committee to turn it into political football… don’t make people laugh,” Ellul told Carabott.

PN MP Carabott argued that since consultants were paid by taxpayers, the committee’s discussion of the tourism ministry’s spending fell within its scope.

However, the PAC’s four PL members, Ellul, Bedingfield, Alex Muscat, and Amanda Spiteri Grech, voted down Carabott’s question.

PL members, including Alex Muscat voted down PN MPs on consultancies. Photo: Jonathan Borg

It was the second time Carabott attempted to obtain a list of Bartolo’s consultants.

In February, Carabott had asked for the names of those appointed as consultants, chief policy advisors, and heads of secretariats for the Gozo and tourism ministries between 2020 and 2024.

The government’s members in the parliamentary committee voted down the request, saying it was nothing more than a “fishing expedition” for political purposes.

The committee began discussing the tourism and Gozo ministries after a Standards Commissioner report found Bartolo and Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri in breach of parliamentary ethics.

In November, the commissioner found that Bartolo’s wife, Amanda Muscat, was given a lucrative consultancy contract even though she did no consultancy work and continued performing her duties as his private secretary.

Weeks of political pressure led to Bartolo’s resignation and exclusion from the PL parliamentary group following new revelations of an investigation into an alleged kickback given to Bartolo’s wife.

During his testimony, Bartolo mostly fielded questions about the Film Commission.

PN MPs Carabott, Claudette Buttigieg, and Ivan Castillo asked if he felt that the Film Commission’s spending was reasonable.

Bartolo said that the Film Commission’s return on investment showed that the commission had been responsible with its finances.