Labour MPs have blocked a request to publish who received Manchester United tickets as part of the Malta Tourism Authority’s sponsorship agreement.
During Tuesday’s Public Accounts Committee meeting, chair Darren Carabott asked the tourism ministry’s permanent secretary information about the MTA's agreement with the Premier League club.
He requested a copy of the agreement, a list of the people who went to Manchester United as a result of the deal, and detail what benefits they received.
He also asked permanent secretary Christopher Cutajar to present information regarding the person who decided who was eligible for tickets.
Labour MP Glenn Bedingfield did not object to presenting the contract saying it had already been tabled in the past.
“I’m objecting to the other requests because they do not fall under public spending,” he said.
Bedingfield said the PAC is responsible for public spending. He argued that benefits such as free tickets were not within the scope of the committee.
“The tickets were not bought by the government or issued by the government; therefore, the tickets came from Manchester United Football Club,” he said.
Bedingfield said he did not want to discuss free tickets given to public officials because he respects the committee and the committee’s standing orders.
Carabott argued that revealing who received tickets as a result of a sponsorship agreement paid for by public funds was within the committee’s scope.
The four government members of the PAC—Alex Muscat, Naomi Cachia, Bedingfield, and Amanda Spiteri Grech, who was on her mobile phone throughout the discussion—disagreed and voted down Carabott’s questions.
As public cleansing parliamentary secretary, Bedingfield was answerable to the tourism ministry until November, when Clayton Bartolo was sacked as minister over alleged kickbacks that Bartolo’s wife received from an MTA deal.
Bedingfield’s public cleansing secretariat has now been moved to the environment ministry.
MTA extended its agreement with Manchester United in 2022 for a further five years.
The original deal between Malta and Manchester United was sealed in September 2019 for a three-year period.
The government refused to disclose how much it had spent on the deal, saying only that speculation about a €20 million price tag was “nowhere close” to the actual amount.