“Giving to society and to our communities is a pleasure that we love to do (sic) all year round… this is the Christmas spirit that we at Marigold Foundation live every day.”
The Marigold Foundation is better known as the Michelle Muscat foundation after the ‘first lady’ who hijacked it from Bank of Valletta.
Muscat brags that her foundation loves “giving to society”.
In fact, it’s drained hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ euros into a bottomless pit of “expenses”.
Those expenses probably cover Michelle’s multiple foreign trips, accompanied by her ‘executive secretary’, Mariella Agius Vassallo. This year alone, Michelle went to Brussels in February, Zurich in July and New York in September.
In 2014, Marigold’s first year, expenses amounted to just €14,752. By 2018, those ‘expenses’ ballooned to €141,000.
In just four years, Michelle’s foundation spent €365,114 in undisclosed “expenses”. The last audited accounts submitted by the foundation showed that almost half of all “donations” were spent on “campaigns, events and other operating expenses”.
Where did those donations come from? Between 2017 and 2019 alone, €300,000 came from taxpayers’ funds. During the period when Joseph Muscat, Michelle’s husband, was prime minister, the foundation drained over €500,000 of our taxes. The Office of the Prime Minister alone ‘donated’ €140,000 in the last two years of Muscat’s premiership.
Practically all government entities and authorities were coerced into donating public funds to Michelle. Even the Malta Gaming Authority coughed up €150,000 and the education ministry €68,000.
Gozo Channel, Jobsplus, the Lands Authority, the Malta Council for Science and Technology, the MFSA and even the National Orchestra, all donated tens of thousands.The ministers in Muscat’s cabinet were falling over each other to donate to Michelle.
The one who came tops was the shameless Edward Scicluna whose ministry handed over €90,000 of our taxes. He was closely followed by Evarist Bartolo.
In addition, the Marigold Foundation received hundreds of thousands more in kind from the various ministries.
Michelle’s foundation was allowed free use of national venues. The Armed Forces of Malta allocated resources to Michelle’s notorious swims. The Department of Information issued press releases on the foundation’s behalf. Muscat even got her name on an EU-funded project.
No wonder that her foundation held a positive balance of €742,255, according to the latest published accounts. That’s almost three-quarters of a million euros.
The Marigold Foundation, originally set up by Bank of Valletta, was taken over by Muscat in 2019 through a nominal endowment of just €100. Muscat now has the authority to appoint persons of her choice on the board of the foundation. As sitting chairperson, she also gets to decide on her own removal.
But that’s not all. Muscat has found ingenious ways of scamming the nation.
The executive secretary to Muscat’s foundation is paid €35,000 plus benefits by the State. Agius Vassallo, an ex-policewoman, was the personal assistant of former transport minister Joe Mizzi. She was photographed shopping at a London Primark with the minister on one of their joint foreign trips.
Despite her absolute lack of qualifications and experience, she was subsequently recruited to the Energy and Water Agency and swiftly promoted to ‘policy officer’ by CEO Manuel Sapiano.
Soon after getting promoted and receiving her lucrative contract, she was swiftly seconded to work with Muscat on the explicit instructions of the Office of the Prime Minister. At the same time, she was appointed on the board of directors of Transport Malta.
Agius Vassallo’s generous pay package was made public after The Shift lodged a FOI request.
Her package included €10,000 in allowances in addition to her basic salary. Those allowances were meant to be tied to her position at the Energy and Water Agency.
CEO Sapiano would not divulge whether Agius Vassallo was still receiving her €10,000 in allowances since being seconded to Michelle’s National Alliance for Rare Disease Support Malta.
What is sure is that Muscat has, not one but two, Statefunded drivers at her service.
One of those drivers was seconded from the Cleansing Department, the other from Transport Malta to serve at her foundation. Instead, they drive Muscat around in her State-funded luxury vehicle.
But they do all sorts of other jobs – ferrying the Muscat girls around, carrying Michelle’s shopping. They’re certainly kept busy because the two drivers are also paid handsome allowances and overtime. Amazingly, they’ve recently been rebranded as ‘logistics managers’.
Muscat even has a representative in New York for her RareDisease Support Malta. Coincidentally that representative is none other than William Buttigieg, the husband of Muscat’s business partner, Michelle Buttigieg. Buttigieg and Muscat own the jewellery business Buttardi. Michelle Buttigieg was given a job with Malta Tourism Authority, earning €5,000 per month as the MTA’s New York representative.
Whether William Buttigieg is being remunerated for his role is unclear.
What’s certainly clear is that Muscat has managed to hijack the Marigold Foundation. She appointed her husband’s longtime aide, Mark Farrugia, on the board of administrators.
She appointed her business partner’s husband as her New York representative. She’s got an executive secretary and two drivers paid by the State. She’s drained massive amounts of taxpayers’ money into the foundation’s account and managed to squander hundreds of thousands more on “expenses”.
And, yet, the whole outfit is totally amateurish. Despite being legally obliged to submit annual returns and accounts, the foundation last submitted them in 2021. They can’t even keep a website running.
Logging in to the official website marigold.org.mt will take you to a full-size image of Muscat’s smiling face and a message warning “coming soon”.
The foundation’s Facebook page promotes herbal remedies for “Herpes disease” in bad English – and quotes St Paul: “The Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write ‘Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right’.”
Sadly, we’re all paying for that fakery.
Kevin Cassar is a professor of surgery.