Former Malta Tourism Authority chairman Gavin Gulia told a parliamentary committee on Tuesday that he only found out disgraced minister Konrad Mizzi had been given a €80,000 consultancy contract with the authority “from the media”. 

Appearing before parliament’s public appointments committee, Gulia, who was at the helm of the authority at the time, said he was the one to rescind the controversial contract. 

Gulia was made to appear before the committee after resigning as MTA chairman to take up a seat in parliament earlier this month, only to resign that same seat minutes later

An investigation by the Standards Commissioner found the contract given to Mizzi shortly after his resignation as tourism minister was an abuse of power by former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat. 

MTA CEO Johann Buttigieg had told the Commissioner that Muscat had instructed him to give Mizzi the lucrative contract shortly after the minister’s resignation in November 2019. 

Gulia argued before the parliamentary committee that a distinction had to be made between the MTA’s board and its executive. 

He slammed Standards Commissioner George Hyzler for failing to ask him whether he knew about the contract. 

Hyzler noted in his report that neither Gulia nor Buttigieg appeared to have taken any action to uphold the law or safeguard public funds. 

Gulia maintained before the committee that this conclusion was unfair, as the Commissioner had never asked him whether he knew about the contract.

"He was very unfair. He hurt me." Gulia said. 

At the end of the committee hearing, all four government MPs voted in favour of Gulia being re-appointed to the MTA, with the three PN MPs voting against. 

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