The police must file criminal proceedings against all those involved in the fraudulent use of taxpayer money to pay Rosianne Cutajar as a government consultant, ADPD said on Tuesday.
ADPD – The Green Party chairperson Sandra Gauci said that the party also expected to see criminal action against those who did nothing to prevent the fraud despite being duty-bound to do so.
Gauci was reacting after the National Audit Office published a report into Cutajar’s 2019 consultancy deal with the state-run Institute of Tourism Studies, which found no evidence that the MP did any work at all for the ITS.
The damning report also concluded that Cutajar’s consultancy deal was backdated by at least one month, that the ITS board was never aware of it and that Cutajar had no expertise or qualifications to do the tasks she was hired to do.
That NAO probe was trigged by Carmel Cacopardo, who at the time served as chairperson of ADPD. Cacopardo had asked the NAO to investigate whether the job constituted a misuse of public funds.
It is the first time that the NAO has investigated an MP’s engagement with a state entity – a practice that the Organisation for Economic and Social Development has said Malta should prohibit outright.
“From a quick perusal of the report’s conclusions it is crystal clear that those entrusted with ensuring in the public sector good governance have failed miserably in their basic duties. It serves no purpose in having clear rules if those entrusted with enforcing them do not care,” ADPD chairperson Gauci said.
The ADPD highlighted two key points from the report’s conclusions: that the duties assigned to Cutajar were beyond her competencies and that “the dearth of evidence casts doubt on what work was carried out.”
“When seen in the context of earlier points raised by this Office regarding the irregularity and fraudulent nature of this employment, the poor output, if any, of the Consultant, aggravates concerns of negligence on the disbursement of public funds by all involved in this contrived engagement,” the NAO concluded.
Gauci said that the ADPD would be organising a press conference on Wednesday to further address the issue.
Robert Aquilina, who heads rule of law NGO Repubblika, congratulated Cacopardo for having requested the investigation and said Cutajar - who now serves as an independent MP - should no longer hold any public role.
Just days ago, a request by Repubblika for Cutajar to be investigated for having breached parliamentary ethics by not declaring her ITS income to parliament fell short due to a technicality.
In a statement later, Repubblika said the auditor-general's report confirmed institutional corruption. It called for a police investigation to be held, for Cutajar to reimburse the funds given to her, and for the ITS administration to be sacked. It also called on the Labour Party to exclude Cutajar from any role and ban her from contesting elections under its list.
In another statement, independent candidate Arnold Cassola insisted that Rosianne Cutajar must return the €14,000 given to her, and ITS CEO Pierre Fenech must be suspended pending an investigation for abuse of power and nepotism.
"Salaries and consultancies are to be given to those who earn them and not because you scream out "Laburista kont u laburista nibqa'" he insisted.