Italian Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano quit last September in the midst of a controversy over a consultancy role for his former mistress that embarrassed Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government.

Something similar had occurred in Malta three years ago when the education minister resigned after it emerged she had granted a handsome contract to her partner to draft a report, which he did not write.

A different approach appears to have been adopted in the case of Clayton Bartolo and Clint Camilleri. The outcome of the investigation, conducted by the commissioner for standards in public life into the engagement as a consultant of a woman who today is Bartolo’s wife, raises a number of very worrying issues.

The conclusions were clear: they abused their power and breached ministerial ethics. They failed to administer public funds diligently. There were inconsistencies in the evidence given by the two ministers to the standards commissioner. The office of the prime minister was aware that the person in question was still working for Bartolo although officially serving as consultant to Camilleri. So, whether directly or indirectly, by omission or by commission, the prime minister had a finger in the pie too.

Robert Abela tries to play down this very serious matter. He says he went through the commissioner’s report in detail and concludes that, had the matter been as grave as the opposition and its “branch” – Repubblika – make it out to be, the commissioner could have pushed for criminal action.

As he is prone to do in situations of blatant wrongdoing by those close to him, the prime minister keeps harping on criminal responsibility, conveniently forgetting the offenders are politicians who must also shoulder political responsibility.

The conclusions were clear: they abused their power and breached ministerial ethics

If his comments on the findings are the result of conviction rather than political convenience, then it becomes truly worrying in terms of good governance.

If Abela did analyse the report – as he says he did – he must have misread the more sensitive parts, and, certainly, what lies between the lines.

This, he says with a straight face, is not a matter of a phantom job because the person in question did work. Indeed. Only she was paid for work she did not do and which she was not qualified to do.

He insists there was no breach of the Manual on Resourcing Policies and Procedures. That may be so only because of loopholes in the document, as the standards commissioner remarks in his report, and which he would like to be addressed.

Abela, of course, has every right to think the findings do not impinge negatively on the two ministers’ performance and, so, they can remain in office. Many others would certainly differ and a good read of the report no doubt sustains such a stand.

The prime minister decided that an apology should do, even though only one of the two ministers has apologised so far, and it was a conditional apology, too.

He went further, implying that the parliamentary committee on standards in public life should order both ministers to apologise and leave it at that. He described Repubblika’s official complaint, asking the police commissioner to prosecute the two ministers and the person they engaged, as vexatious and fake.

One would be justified in arguing that the prime minister was trying to use his position to influence the course of justice and, therefore, rock the rule of law.

Abela’s message is clear: if you are caught with dirty hands, say sorry and carry on.

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