Health Minister and Labour leadership hopeful Chris Fearne said he had “closed the door forever on a profession built with my own hands over three decades”.

Mr Fearne was asked to react to comments made by fellow leadership contender Robert Abela, who has said that if he became prime minister, his wife Lydia would have every right to retain and bid for government contracts.

Dr Abela subsequently backtracked and said that his law firm would not seek government contracts if he were elected Labour leader and Prime Minister. 

Dr Abela and his wife, both lawyers, run the law firm Abela Advocates. She is also secretary to the Labour Party executive. He has said he would step aside from his decision-making role in the firm if elected Labour leader.

When contacted, Mr Fearne said that speaking for himself and “without standing in judgement of anyone”, when he had decided to accept a Cabinet position he had “closed the door forever” on his professional career.

“It was not easy, but I believed and still do that it was my duty to the public and to the country to do so,” Mr Fearne, a paediatric surgeon, said.

Mr Fearne said the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards had rules on such matters so his first instinct was to “hear his views”. 

Times of Malta contacted Mr Fearne before Dr Abela changed tack and said his firm would not be seeking government work.

Jobs for the boys

However, when Commissioner George Hyzler was contacted and asked whether he believed that, as a general rule, spouses of MPs could be given government work, he declined to comment.

A spokesman told Times of Malta: “It is not the policy of the Commissioner for Standards in Public Life to comment or respond to queries about potential breaches of the code.”

The Commissioner could look into such cases only in the context of an investigation, he added.

Government contracts

For years, the law firm owned and run by Robert Abela and his wife has pocketed thousands of euros through government contracts.

One of the latest awarded to Abela Advocates was in October 2019 by the Environment Ministry.

According to information submitted in Parliament, the firm was given a direct order of €130,000 for the provision of legal services for the Dairy Restructural Aid Animal Housing Scheme.

Throughout Labour’s first legislature, between 2013 and 2017, Abela Advocates was paid more than €500,000 by two government entities – the Planning Authority and Transport Malta.