OPM employee Neville Gafà has stuck his neck out for former chief of staff Keith Schembri, telling Education Minister Evarist Bartolo that he should have resigned from his post three years ago. 

He said it would be better if Mr Bartolo continued to carry out his work instead of spewing hate. 

“Why did you not resign three years ago? If you were not in agreement, why were you not man enough to resign?”

Mr Gafà, who was employed by the prime minister in January on a person of trust basis, has also been a frequent visitor to Mr Schembri’s villa ever since Joseph Muscat’s top aide stepped down on November 26 during police investigations into the murder of Daphna Caruana Galizia.

He was reacting to Mr Bartolo’s Facebook post on Sunday in which he said two of Malta’s last three prime ministers had a chief of staff who was too powerful, akin to a chief of government. He insisted that there could only by one prime minister at the Auberge de Castille, the one elected democratically. No one else should be allowed to weave a network of power in various sectors which ended up stronger than the national institutions.

People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, Mr Gafà said, quoting the Maltese expression Biex tiskongra trid tkun pur. “We have not forgotten that you had attacked the Prime Minister. You did this when you were leading a delegation abroad…. One other thing: before judging Mr Schembri, I think you should compare his achievements for the country with your work,” Mr Gafà told Mr Bartolo.

His post on Sunday brought about an angry reaction from Opposition MP Simon Busuttil. “To try to compare Richard Cachia Caruana to a criminal such as Keith Schembri (Joseph Muscat’s former chief of staff) is totally unacceptable,” Dr Busuttil wrote on Facebook.