Prime Minister Joseph Muscat on Tuesday dismissed questions about how he funded expensive flights for his whole family during a three day ‘holiday’ in Dubai.
“It is none of your business. It is my personal private funds”, Dr Muscat said when asked if he was the one who paid for the flights, which are estimated to have cost over €15,000.
MPs are obliged to declare if any trips abroad are paid for in full or in part by any person or company that has an interest in the legislative process.
Dr Muscat and his family spent at least a fifth of their short jaunt to Dubai on planes and in airport terminals.
Asked if he was saying that he paid for the flights, Dr Muscat instead advised Times of Malta to ask who else received luxury watches from murder suspect Yorgen Fenech.
Dr Muscat was gifted a number 17 edition of a Bvlgari watch valued in the tens of thousands of euros by the business tycoon as a Christmas present in 2014.
Apart from the pricey watch, the prime minister has also been gifted three bottles of Pétrus, a premier Bordeaux red wine worth thousand for his birthday.
Dr Muscat never publicly declared receiving any gifts from Mr Fenech, who stands accused of complicity in the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
The prime minister's former chief of staff and best friend Keith Schembri is considered by police as a person of interest in the assassination.
A letter sent to Mr Fenech by self-described murder middleman Melvin Theuma implicated both the Tumas Group heir and Mr Schembri in the murder plot.
Holiday mode
The outgoing prime minister has been on multiple trips abroad ever since he announced last month that he would be stepping down in January.
Just a few days after his Dubai ‘holiday’, Dr Muscat jetted off to London with his family in tow.
He was seen multiple times in the lounge of the Corinthia London hotel, where rooms can cost thousands of euros.
Dr Muscat is one of the few members of government who has steadily declared the exact same bank balance since 2014, despite his extensive travels.
A spokesman for Dr Muscat said in 2018 that the prime minister had managed to maintain the same bank balance by managing his income “like any other family”.