The Commissioner for Standards in Public Life will not be investigating Tourism Minister Clayton Bartolo’s “refusal” to immediately table two CEO contracts in Parliament, since the minister eventually made those contracts public. 

Commissioner Joseph Azzopardi noted that although Bartolo had initially ignored a parliamentary request to table contracts pertaining to Pierre Fenech, he did so following a second request some days later.

Azzopardi looked into the matter at the request of electoral candidate and academic Arnold Cassola. 

Cassala had filed an investigation request on February 17, noting that the tourism minister was refusing to present Fenech's contracts to parliament. 

In his request, Cassola referred to an article in The Shift on February 8 “One man with two CEO roles and two salaries at Tourism Ministry”, which alleged that Fenech was serving as full-time CEO at both the Institute of Tourism Studies and the Mediterranean Conference Centre. 

One day later, Nationalist MP Mario de Marco filed a parliamentary question asking for the CEO contracts to be tabled. The minister replied on Feburary 14, but ignored the request to table the contracts.

De Marco asked, again, for the contracts to be tabled. The minister eventually did so on February 27 - 10 days after Cassola had asked the Standards Commissioner to investigate the lack of transparency.  

In his reply to Cassola, the Commissioner said that although the minister did not give a reason for not immediately tabling the requested contracts, he did table them two weeks later.

Although the delay could have been avoided, it did not merit an investigation since the information requested had been given, he concluded. 

Fenech's €100k dual role

In his reply, Bartolo revealed that Fenech was given both jobs within months of each other back in 2015: Fenech was appointed as ITS executive director in March 2015 and then reconfirmed as CEO. Just one month earlier, in February, he had applied to serve as CEO of the MCC. 

His current contracts for the two jobs were signed in January and October of 2021 respectively (see attached PDF). 

Fenech’s full-time role as ITS CEO will net him a basic salary of €58,250 plus perks totalling €16,500 a year. 

That job, which runs until January 2025, requires Fenech to work a 40-hour week. 

Fenech’s contract as part-time CEO of the MCC runs until October 2024. While the contract notes that the job is a “part-time” one, it does not specify how many hours Fenech is expected to work. 

Instead, the contract states that he “shall be required to attend to his duties at such times as may be determined by the Entity from time to time.” 

For doing so, Fenech will be paid a basic salary of €26,800 this year, plus over €7,100 in allowances. In all, Fenech will pocket a combined total of €109,000 this year for the two CEO jobs, plus a performance bonus of up to €8,700 (15% of his two basic salaries).

Fenech's name resurfaced in public spheres in recent weeks after chat transcripts between Rosianne Cutajar and Yorgen Fenech revealed how she had resolved to "get a consultancy" with him at ITS.

"Everybody's pigging out," Cutajar, at the time a Labour MP, had told Fenech. 

Fenech gave Cutajar a €27,000-a-year consultancy role at the ITS. The MP did not list that job on her parliamentary declaration of assets. Green Party ADPD has asked the National Audit Office to investigate the contract.

Correction April 5, 2023: A previous version misstated Fenech's surname as Cassar.