Funds given to Tourism Minister Clayton Bartolo's wife through her fraudulent employment as a consultant must be returned, PN leader Bernard Grech said on Monday.

Replying to questions by Saviour Balzan on the TVM programme Xtra, the Opposition leader said that the tourism minister and Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri were the ones responsible to ensure the funds were reimbursed.

The Standards Commissioner found last week that the ministers abused their power and breached ministerial ethics when Bartolo's now-wife was employed in a job she was not qualified for and did not do within the Gozo ministry. She had a salary of nearly €70,000.

Grech hit out at Prime Minister Robert Abela for having said that the case was now closed because he had sacked the tourism minister's wife, Amanda Muscat.

Why had Abela sacked Muscat if he truly believed that she was doing her job, Grech asked. Clearly, he had dismissed her because he knew she was being paid for doing nothing. Therefore, he should take action against those who had been paying her with public funds for no reason.

Grech insisted that those who allowed this theft and fraud to take place had no place in the government and should resign. If they didn't, Abela had a duty to remove them.

Yet it appeared that Abela was compromised and could not act.  

In the interview, Grech said the PN was attracting new people who felt comfortable sharing their ideas with the party.

The party was also seeing the return of supporters who over the years had distanced themselves.

In this way, he said, the PN could build a coalition of Maltese and Gozitans of goodwill who wished to see a change in the way things were done in the country.