Amanda Muscat, the wife of now-former Tourism Minister Clayton Bartolo, insisted on her innocence as she refunded the excess payments she received as a fictitious consultant.

In a letter Muscat sent to the principal permanent secretary, Tony Sultana, Muscat enclosed a bank draft for €16,407.72. The letter was presented as a written submission during Wednesday’s parliamentary committee session. 

“I reiterate my innocence because, as the commissioner noted, everything that happened was in line with regulations and policies in place at that time,” she wrote. 

She said she was refunding the money out of respect for “the institutions and laws”.

The bank draft authorising payment was dated November 27.

Earlier this month Standards Commissioner Joseph Azzopardi investigation found her husband, Clayton Bartolo and Gozo minister Clint Camilleri abused their power when they gave her lucrative consultancy jobs that she never did.

According to the report, Muscat, at the time Bartolo’s girlfriend and private secretary, was first given a tourism ministry consultancy with a salary of almost €62,000 in 2020. She was then promoted again, as a consultant to the Gozo minister, where she earned €68,000 a year.

However the Commissioner found that no evidence that she did any work as consultant in either ministry. 

A parliamentary committee on Wednesday ordered that she repay the €16,407 difference between the work she carried out as a private secretary and the work she did not complete as a consultant.

The refund was calculated by the Principal Permanent Secretary. 

In the letter, Muscat stood her ground, explaining that she decided to return the money because she respects the country’s institutions and is “not an admission of guilt” and that she reserved the right to defend her interests as a private person. 

The parliamentary committee session also received written submissions from Bartolo and Camilleri. The Committee said Bartolo must make a formal apology in parliament.

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

Bartolo began his letter by thanking the work of the Standards Commissioner. His letter highlighted the recommendations noted in the report and emphasised that the commissioner had not recommended that the matter be referred to the police or mentioned the words “fraud” or “phantom job”.

“These words have been used by political figures in recent weeks to try and add a different spin than to what was written in the report,” Bartolo added.

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

Snippet from Bartolo's written submission.

On his end, in his four-page letter, Camilleri said all the correct procedures were carried out to hire Muscat, and that her employment lasted eight months. 

“Today, it has been three years since this person worked in the Gozo Ministry, so much so that this case happened in the previous legislature,” his letter read.

He insisted he did nothing wrong and said he had “personal reservations” about some of the shortcomings identified by the commissioner but that he accepted the conclusions. 

“Because anyone who has had a ministerial role knows it is difficult for a politician to certify each role and function every worker has. Even because there is certain overlapping between workers, where one adopts a bigger priority in the minister and government at that time," he wrote.

He said at no point did he work for any personal gain, nor any form of fraud or misappropriation.

"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."