“The recruitment was in line with the Manual on Resourcing,” the unbelievably arrogant Clint Camilleri commented. “They followed procedure to the letter.”
So, rest your mind, Minister Camilleri followed the manual to the letter. Because nowhere does the manual state “you must not recruit your cabinet colleague’s lover as a consultant despite her lack of qualifications, expertise or experience, knowing she won’t really be working with your ministry, but just to deceive the public into believing she’s no longer working with her lover”. Camilleri thinks the public is totally dumb.
If Camilleri needs a manual to tell him not to collude with his friend, Clayton Bartolo to give Bartolo’s girlfriend a fictitious consultant job, he shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near power.
A doctor cannot defend killing a patient by pointing out that the Hippocratic oath doesn’t state “do not kill your patient”. You cannot run somebody over and claim you followed the highway code to the letter because it doesn’t state “do not run people over”.
Besides, Camilleri is lying. Camilleri not only put Bartolo’s girlfriend, Amanda Muscat on the highest salary scale possible – scale 3 – he also gave her the maximum allowances possible – €2,000 expenses allowance, €20,000 expertise allowance, €4,659 transport allowance and €815 communications allowance.
He didn’t follow the manual to the letter at all.
The manual clearly states that expertise allowance of no more than €20,000 per annum or/and expenses allowance of no more than €2,000 per annum may be awarded in exceptional cases only with the relevant approval from the prime minister.
The only exceptional thing in Muscat was the staggering greed. Muscat got almost €70,000 of our money when she barely possessed a single A-level and intermediate certificate for consultancy work she never did.
Camilleri is deeply dishonest. He knew Muscat couldn’t fulfil the role of consultant. He knew she wasn’t working at the Gozo ministry. He certainly knew Muscat wasn’t providing him with exceptional advice based on her non-existent experience, deficient qualifications and absent expertise. She didn’t even have an office. Nobody checked her attendance – because they knew she was “working” with her lover.
Even the commissioner for standards in public life was appalled. “The manual states that expertise allowance should be given only in exceptional circumstances [paragraph 23]. This office understands therefore that this allowance is reserved for persons who are true experts.” Not fake ones, like Muscat.
But who approved Muscat’s lucrative fake consultant appointment? Who approved the exceptional €20,000 expertise allowance and the €2,000 expenses allowance?
It was Prime Minister Robert Abela. That’s why Camilleri is so bullish.
Camilleri has Abela in a vice. He has the evidence to bring Abela down.
Abela can hardly demand Camilleri’s resignation when Abela himself approved the disgusting tens of thousands in allowances on top of her massively inflated salary.
Abela didn’t even have the guts to demand an apology from Camilleri.
In a bizarre twist, Abela is now claiming that he sacked Muscat. He was the one who approved her fake consultant post and her €20,000 expertise allowance.
Abela’s claim that he sacked Muscat doesn’t match the sworn testimony of Camilleri’s head of secretariat, Michael Buhagiar.
Buhagiar testified: “I saw that the work was done, and I didn’t need her, and I called her and told her, we’re going to stop the contract, and you’ll stop working on the last day of 2020.” Is that normal practice, the incredulous commissioner asked him. “Yes, yes, it’s not the first time.”
If Clint Camilleri did everything by the letter, why did Robert Abela sack Amanda Muscat?- Kevin Cassar
Abela has now thrown Buhagiar under the bus without thinking twice. Abela exposed Buhagiar’s testimony as pure perjury. If Abela is to be believed, Buhagiar didn’t terminate Muscat’s contract because she had done all the work. He terminated it because Abela ordered it.
Yet, in the same breath, Abela went to great lengths to defend Muscat, declaring that she had put in the hours.
After bragging that he had sacked her, Abela deceitfully claimed this was not a phantom job. That’s exactly what it is – paid as a consultant for a secretary’s work. That’s like paying for a Ferrari and instead being given a rusty Lada and Abela insisting “but you got your car, didn’t you?”
Abela has lost the plot. He’s tripping himself up. There was nothing wrong, he argued, “instead of working with the Gozo ministry she worked at the tourism ministry – this is one government. These ministries form part of one government. She was working for the government of Malta, and she gave all her hours”. That’s not what Camilleri testified under oath. When challenged about Muscat’s working hours, he replied: “I never checked, honestly, with any staff about their time, their punch clock, etc.”
The Malta Employers’ Association is absolutely right. The prime minister’s decision to close both eyes to Bartolo’s and Camilleri’s obscene behaviour is immoral, deeply immoral.
But it keeps getting worse. Abela is tying himself in knots: she worked hard, she worked for the government, she did nothing wrong – but I sacked her. Go figure!
Bartolo, Camilleri and Abela know their actions are not only shameful but utterly revolting, even to their former cabinet colleague Evarist Bartolo.
They defrauded the state of tens of thousands of euros, deceived the public and, when caught, are still justifying it.
Everybody knows Muscat is no consultant. Everybody recognises the scale of the naked greed that not only gave her a consultant post but awarded her the maximum of all possible allowances.
The people voted Abela in to protect the public interest, to administer the public’s funds wisely and honestly.
Bartolo, Camilleri and Abela conspired to defraud the public of tens of thousands of euros for the minister’s girlfriend and then engaged in a charade to cover it up. And, now, Abela is trying to whitewash the abuse while bragging that he sacked her.
That’s an irreparable breach of trust. That is Labour’s message – to enrich our ministers’ girlfriends we’ll betray your trust, steal your money and then try and fool you. And when found guilty of breaching ethics we’ll tell you we followed the manual to the letter. Or take credit for sacking her. Which begs the question: if Camilleri did everything by the letter, why did Abela sack her?