Tourism Minister Clayton Bartolo and Institute of Tourism Studies CEO Pierre Fenech should both resign in connection with Rosianne Cutajar's fraudulent consultancy, ADPD said on Wednesday. 

Green Party chairperson Sandra Gauci said Fenech, who signed Cutajar's contract and was responsible for her ITS post, had to be held accountable for what he had done. 

She noted that when self-confessed murder middleman Melvin Theuma was revealed to have been given a phantom job, the police had pressed charges against five people involved in that, including Theuma himself. 

“It is your duty, Police Commissioner [Angelo Gafà] to ensure that all members of the police force, yourself included, act appropriately. You should ensure that no one obstructs police officers from acting without fear or favour,” Gauci said.

Speaking alongside her, former party chairperson Carmel Cacopardo noted that Tourism Minister Clayton Bartolo is also responsible after he publicly defended Fenech on Tuesday.

“He stuck his neck out, saying that he has full confidence in the ITS CEO,” Cacopardo said. “On the basis of that statement, he should follow ITS’ CEO and resign.”

On Tuesday, a National Audit Office report revealed that Cutajar’s 2019 consultancy contract with ITS was "irregular" and breached all regulations governing public employment. It also found she was hired to do work she was not competent to do.

Cutajar reacted with defiance, dismissing the report as untrue.  

"That's the opinion of the auditor, it doesn't mean it's true, does it?" she said when asked about the report's conclusions. "I did that work. I worked for every cent that I was paid."

The NAO investigation was triggered by a request filed by former ADPD chair Cacopardo, who suspected Cutajar's consultancy was a fake one. 

Speaking at a press conference outside police headquarters in Floriana on Wednesday, he noted that Cutajar was an Italian teacher who had been hired to carry out finance-related tasks. 

“It was clear from the beginning that this was a misuse of public funds,” he said, remarking that her only role at ITS was “to cash her cheques”.

“Good governance was short-circuited," Cacopardo said.

Sandra Gauci and Carmel Cacopardo speaking on Wednesday. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier

Cutajar pocketed just under €20,000 from the eight-month deal, which ended when she was made a junior minister in January 2020. 

The MP was subsequently demoted from cabinet and eventually forced out of the Labour Party's parliamentary group following fallout resulting from her conversations and dealings with business tycoon and murder complicity suspect Yorgen Fenech. 

Her ITS consultancy came to light when author Mark Camilleri published transcripts of chat conversations between Cutajar and Fenech, in which she revealed that she intended to take on the ITS role to "pocket another wage". 

"I don't care, everyone is pigging out," the MP told him.