Nationalist MP Toni Bezzina has rejected Robert Abela’s claims that he failed to show up for work, accusing the Labour Party of fabricating allegations to shift public focus from the ministers' job scandal.
“These are all invented allegations coming from the Labour Party to divert attention from the fraud of Clayton Bartolo and Clint Camilleri,” Bezzina said when contacted.
In an interview with Times of Malta, the prime minister made it clear he will not ask for the resignation of ministers Clayton Bartolo and Clint Camilleri, despite the standards commissioner finding them guilty of breaching ethics.
The report by retired chief justice Joseph Azzopardi revealed how Bartolo and Camilleri were both found to have abused their power and breached ministerial ethics when they gave Bartolo’s partner Amanda Muscat a job as a highly paid consultant.
In the interview, Abela slammed the Nationalist Party for its “hypocrisy” for organising a protest about ministerial abuse when their MPs exploited the system for years.
“Toni Bezzina is employed with the Public Works Department and receives an annual salary of €51,000. Yet, consistently, he fails to attend his workplace and provides no service,” Abela said.
Neville Gafà, a former OPM official, filed a complaint with the commissioner for standards against Nationalist MPs, including Bezzina, Ivan Castillo and Justin Schembri.
Bezzina, the shadow minister of agriculture, said Labour is trying to shut him up from doing his work by defending the rights of fishermen and farmers.
He said the same stories were “invented” by the Labour Party when it had its back against the wall when the auditor general had found former Labour MP Rosianne Cutajar’s employment as an ITS consultant to be “fraudulent” and “irregular”.
“There are so many lies the Labour Party government has spun for the past 11 years and has never taken any form of action. It’s clear proof that they are fabricated.”
‘By the rules’
Defending Bartolo and Camilleri, two of his closest cabinet allies, Abela also pointed his guns at other PN MPs.
Abela said deputy parliamentary speaker David Agius spent years without reporting to his workplace. For over 30 years, Agius worked as an HR manager at the Malta Freeport Corporation.
But contacted yesterday, Agius said: “This is not a phantom job, I go to work. I have permission from the freeport to not report to work when I have parliamentary duties.
“Everything is done according to the book. I abide by the rules.”
The former PN whip’s employment had come under the spotlight back in 2020 when then-standards commissioner George Hyzler found he and other opposition members frequently did not show up for work.
Hyzler said that Agius’s role constitutes a “grey area” in terms of whether or not his frequent absences from work were justified.
This came after Times of Malta reported that several opposition MPs had been told to start showing up for work or be shown the door.
Agius said he never faced any issues with work regarding his parliamentary duties and that the Labour Party was “recycling” a story to divert attention from the scandal surrounding ministers Bartolo and Camilleri.
He argued he was appointed as deputy speaker with a full vote by the whole house, including the prime minister.
“I do my work seriously, so I prepare my work seriously,” Agius added.
‘Not factual’
Castillo, who works as a principal technical officer at Enemata, echoed his colleagues’ words and slammed the accusations as “fabricated”.
“I cannot understand how they spread such big lies with no form of proof,” Castillo said, adding he always attended work and, when he failed to show up, he was not paid.
“This claim is a false lie. It is a pity that these allegations are happening now when we have two ministers who have their backs against the wall,” he added.
Castillo said he would present all proof to the parliamentary ethics committee.
“I can confirm 100 per cent the claims are not factual but invented and are lies.”