The Nationalist Party’s parliamentary is "in agreement" on presenting a motion to have Rosianne Cutajar return the money she received for her phantom ITS job, Opposition Leader Bernard Greh said on Tuesday.
This comes amid reports that the parliamentary motion has sown discord among the party’s parliamentary group over fears that the move could backfire on them.
MaltaToday reported on Sunday that in a parliamentary group meeting last week, PN MPs expressed concern that the motion seeking a return of the money paid to Cutajar for the phantom job could reflect negatively on them.
Some complained that the decision to announce the motion was made by Grech without consulting the rest of the group, according to the report.
A report by the National Audit Office concluded that Cutajar’s job at the Insitute of Tourism Studies was “irregular” and “fraudulent”. It found that the former Labour MP had no expertise in the field she was employed in and that there was little evidence that she had done any work.
In response, senior government officials have suggested that the work ethic of PN MPs employed in the public sector should also be investigated.
Cutajar, an MP who quit the Labour Party earlier this year following pressure, has dismissed the NAO report's findings and insisted that they are not true, maintaining that just because there was no evidence of her carrying out any work in the role, it doesn't mean that she didn't work.
Grech told Times of Malta on Tuesday, however, the PN’s parliamentary group is in agreement that action must be taken as a result of Cutajar “pigging out” from public funds through a “made up” job.
“It was not acceptable to the Auditor General, it is not acceptable to us and it is not acceptable to the entire PN parliamentary group,” Grech said of Cutajar’s behaviour.
“So the parliamentary group understands and agrees that we must take action because it is fundamentally unacceptable that Rosianne Cutajar has a fraudulent phantom job and helps herself to thousands from the taxpayer’s pocket.”