Tourism Minister Julia Farrugia Porelli has refuted claims against Malta Tourism Authority Head of Events Lionel Gerada, saying she found no evidence of wrongdoing in the way sponsorships were being awarded.

The matter was raised on Wednesday evening in parliament during the debate on the MTA’s financial estimates.

Gerada, who was a canvasser of former tourism minister Konrad Mizzi, was recruited as Head of Events in 2018 when Mizzi was politically responsible for the entity at the time.

According to The Shift News, the sponsorships committee’s budget shot up from €2 million to €6 million per year following his arrival, with the lion’s share of the contracts being allegedly awarded to Gerada’s close network of individuals. Event organisers had complained that they stood no chance of competing for certain contracts, saying the outcome would be a foregone conclusion.

Opposition MP Beppe Fenech Adami referred to Gerada during the debate while noting that he had been recruited despite having had several criminal convictions including embezzlement. Gerada’s case was also under the spotlight of the Public Accounts Committee which probed the MTA’s annual accounts for 2018.

In her reaction, Farrugia Portelli said she had been made aware of these “rumours” soon after taking office in January. However, she said that when she looked into the matter she found no wrongdoing by Gerada and consequently there were no grounds to take action against him.

“Rest assured that the minute there is evidence of wrongdoing by anybody under my watch, he or she will be chucked out immediately,” she remarked.

As for Gerada’s previous brushes with the law, she insisted these cases went back several years and that it would be unfair to deny a second chance somebody who committed a mistake.

However, she said that a policy outlining the criteria on which the Malta Tourism Authority awarded sponsorships was being drafted to allay concerns there was no level playing field.