Robert Abela is bragging he’s the one who terminated Amanda Muscat’s contract. Yet, he hasn’t explained why.
Was it because Abela knew recruiting the unqualified, inexperienced partner of a fellow minister was abusive, immoral and outright wrong? Absolutely not – because Abela himself approved her recruitment. Abela had no problem giving Muscat the job.
Was it because Abela understood somebody with barely two A-levels didn’t deserve €68,000 in taxpayers’ money? Surely not, because Abela himself approved her €20,000 expertise allowance and another €2,000 expenses allowance. Abela was quite comfortable squandering thousands of euros in expertise allowance on someone with absolutely no expertise at all.
Was it because Clayton Bartolo abused the power Abela gave him when he deviously funnelled exorbitant amounts of taxpayer funds to his partner? Definitely not. Abela wasn’t bothered by Bartolo’s abuse because he didn’t take any action against him in December 2021 when he terminated Muscat’s post, or since.
When Abela shuffled his cabinet, he could have kicked Bartolo out, as he did to Aaron Farrugia. Abela didn’t.
On the contrary, Abela showed his full trust in him by reappointing him – and he’s still defending him.
Did Abela terminate Muscat’s contract because Clint Camilleri deceived the electorate by pretending Muscat would be his consultant when she’d simply continue to work with Bartolo? Surely not.
Abela took no action against Camilleri either. He didn’t denounce him in December 2021 or since. Abela reappointed him a minister after the 2022 election. In 2024, Abela gave Camilleri his resounding endorsement by handing him the planning portfolio in addition to his Gozo ministry.
Abela didn’t stop Muscat’s contract to protect the public from daylight robbery. In fact, he was the one who authorised the thievery by approving her employment and lucrative allowances.
So why did Abela order Muscat’s contract to be axed? For one simple reason – the media found out about it and so would the public. Abela knew the whole nation would be absolutely incandescent that the minister’s girlfriend was paid almost €70,000 when she had no qualifications or experience for a role she couldn’t and wouldn’t do.
The reason Abela terminated her contract was not out of a sense of rectitude and decency. He terminated it because he was worried he’d lose votes, that people would turn against him. That he’d look bad.
Abela terminated that contract because he wanted to cover up his and his ministers’ abuse. That’s why Abela never told us in December 2021 that he terminated it. He did it in total secrecy. Abela’s now shamelessly claiming “the public knew”. No, the public didn’t, because Abela hid it from us. He covered it up, allowing Camilleri’s head of secretariat, Michael Buhagiar to commit perjury and fool the standards commissioner, claiming he terminated her contract himself because Muscat was so brilliant that she did all the work in less time.
Abela enabled that perjury through his devious silence. He colluded with his ministers to cover-up his own obscene abuse. He concealed his frantic termination of that contract to hide the fact he’d approved it himself.
That’s not the first time. Abela did the same thing in the Justyne Caruana-Daniel Bogdanovic case. Abela, through his head of secretariat, Glenn Micallef, authorised Bogdanovic’s employment on December 29, 2020. Abela approved the recruitment of Caruana’s boyfriend.
Yet, just weeks later the same Abela terminated his contract. Paragraph 110 of the standards commissioner’s report reads: “When the story about Mr Bogdanovic appeared in the media, Mr (Glenn) Micallef spoke to the prime minister and issued an order to terminate Bogdanovic’s contract as a member of Minister Caruana’s secretariat which was authorised by OPM in December 2020.”
Micallef wrote to Caruana’s head of secretariat on March 23, 2021, less than three months after he conveyed Abela’s approval: “The contract referred to below is to be terminated with immediate effect.”
Robert Abela’s depraved message to his cabinet ministers is clear – pillage the country to your heart’s content but don’t get caught- Kevin Cassar
Even then permanent secretary Frank Fabri falsely claimed that “the contract for service (for Bogdanovic) followed established procedure”. Like Muscat’s consultancy, everything was ostensibly done “to the letter”. Both contracts were approved by Abela.
Yet, Abela terminated that same contract “with immediate effect”. He did so in a panic when the stories “appeared in the media”. Abela’s motivation wasn’t a sense of rectitude – it was frantic self-preservation.
Abela is totally bereft of integrity or decency. He’s happy to let his ministers loot the nation’s coffers to reward their partners. He’s quite content approving the siphoning of tens of thousands of euros in taxpayers’ money to cabinet ministers’ lovers, knowing full well they are completely incompetent for the lucrative posts they’re appointed to. He’s quite willing to approve thousands of taxpayer euros in expertise allowance for persons totally devoid of expertise – as long as nobody finds out.
Now he’s deviously claiming that, since he’s been prime minister, he’s allowed two opposition MPs to siphon off hundreds of thousands of euros of our money for government roles they don’t fulfil. His puerile “et tu quoque” argument goes “even PN MPs are doing it, so why shouldn’t Clayton”.
The man keeps shooting himself in the foot. He’s responsible for administering our money responsibly. Instead, he’s revealed he’s been handing it out to people who don’t do any work, for years. That doesn’t exonerate him – if anything, it proves his shocking incompetence, that he can’t be trusted with our money.
Abela’s depraved message to his cabinet ministers is clear – pillage the country to your heart’s content but don’t get caught. If the public finds out I’ll have to cut your partners off the gravy train, reads Abela’s memo, otherwise the voters will turn against us – and we’re toast.
Abela didn’t take any action against those two ministers for their revolting abuse of public funds because he approved it. He didn’t even pretend to be outraged and demand the money back. He didn’t even have the spine to force Camilleri to apologise.
Instead, he’s still shamelessly justifying his own villainy.
Joseph Muscat protected Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri because he was neck deep in it too. Abela is doing the same with Clint and Clayton. He’ll meet the ignominious end as Joseph did.
The real problem here isn’t Bartolo or Camilleri.
It’s Abela.
Kevin Cassar is a professor of surgery.