The two PN MPs who sit on the Standards Committee in Parliament, Mark Anthony Sammut and Ryan Callus, said that Minister Clint Camilleri and MP Clayton Bartolo should have been suspended for 30 days.
The Parliament’s Standards in Public Life Committee ordered MP Clayton Bartolo to make a personal apology in Parliament, but chose to simply reprimand Clint Camilleri as part of its sanctions after the two were found in breach of ethics over a top-paid consultancy job given to Bartolo’s wife Amanda Muscat.
Posting on Facebook after the committee meeting, Callus and Sammut said: “As members of the Standing Committee for Standards in Public Life, (we) felt that in the face of a serious case like this, where two Ministers were found guilty of “abuse of power” and breaching the code of ethics by granting employment to the Minister’s wife, who was neither qualified for the role nor performed it, feel the should have been more sanctions than those decided by the Committee today.”
“In the case of both Ministers, we proposed that as happens in other Parliaments, such as in the United Kingdom, in cases of such abuses, the two Ministers should have been suspended from the House for a period of 30 days. We should not have lower standards than others. The Government members did not agree with us.”
“In Clint Camilleri’s case, we felt he should also apologize to the House, as to date he has neither apologized nor shown any remorse for his actions. We also felt he should refund all the money that his Ministry spent on a consultancy that was never carried out by a person who never sent him, or was sent by him, even a single email, never attended the Ministry, and provided no advice. This amounted to around €45,000 (8 months of a €68,000 contract).”
“We cannot accept, as a matter of principle, that a Minister employs someone on behalf of another Minister, to avoid revealing that the person is effectively working for the latter. Unfortunately, the Government members did not agree with us, so that money will not be refunded. The way the Government members acted shows me that this was not an isolated case. This is merely one case that we became aware of. Government Ministers have been refusing for years to publish who their consultants are and what contracts they hold. They only tell us that they engaged them “according to the Manual of Procedures.”
“Even Amanda Muscat was engaged according to the Manual of Procedures. If this is how people are engaged according to the Manual, we have much to worry about in terms of how our money is being spent,” the two PN MPs said.