Speaker Anġlu Farrugia has dismissed a privilege complaint filed by Labour MPs about the Opposition for describing a fake job given to a minister’s wife as “fraud”.

In a ruling given on Tuesday, the Speaker said that statements made by the Opposition to that effect amounted to “political bickering” and that at no point had PN-owned NET News reported that the two ministers involved in the scandal had been found guilty of fraud.

He therefore dismissed the breach of privilege complaint filed by government MP Andy Ellul, who sits on parliament’s committee for standards in public life.

Ellul filed the complaint last Thursday, shortly after the committee unanimously voted to adopt a report by the Standards Commissioner which concluded that ministers Clayton Bartolo and Clint Camilleri abused their ministerial power by giving Bartolo’s wife, Amanda Muscat, a job she did not do.

Muscat was paid as a top consultant while doing secretarial work for Bartolo, the standards commissioner concluded.

Prime Minister Robert Abela said earlier on Tuesday that she will be made to repay the extra money she received for that fake consultancy work.

Bartolo was made to resign as Tourism Minister and forced out of Labour’s parliamentary group earlier on Tuesday, with Abela citing “new circumstances” that came to light.

Those circumstances concern an anti-money laundering investigation into Bartolo and Muscat concerning €50,000 she received in 2023 from a Malta Tourism Authority contractor.

Investigators at the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit believe those “suspicious” payments masked a kickback. A ministry spokesperson told Times of Malta that Muscat’s work was unrelated to the MTA contractor’s Malta assignments.