The Standards in Public Life Committee is to decide the fate of Ministers Clayton Bartolo and Clint Camilleri over an ethics breach in a sitting at 4pm today.
The parliamentary committee, which is made up of two government MPs and two Opposition MPs, with Speaker Anglu Farrugia as chairman, will be meeting to decide whether it will adopt the Standards Commissioner report’s conclusions, reject them, or request for more information.
The Standards report concluded that Bartolo’s then-girlfriend, now wife, Amanda Muscat was given a lucrative job as a Gozo Ministry consultant with a hefty pay rise, even though she did not have the necessary qualifications or expertise.
Muscat was found to not have even done her job as a consultant, and instead remained Bartolo’s private secretary, while receiving a €68,000 salary as a consultant.
The Commissioner concluded that both Ministers abused their power and breached ethics in granting her the job and referred them to the Parliament’s Standards Committee for sanction.
The Committee, according to the Standards in Public Life Act, can choose to adopt or reject the report’s conclusions, or request for further information.
If adopted, the two Ministers will be given the opportunity to present submissions before the Committee, before a ruling is given on punishment.
If the Committee rejects the conclusions, it could request for more information on the report, or people to testify before it.
The Committee could order the Ministers to apologise, or demand a repayment of any funds that were used improperly, or else recommend any other measure it may deem fit.
Despite several calls for their resignation, Bartolo and Camilleri have remained at their posts insisting they did nothing wrong, and Prime Minister Robert Abela made it clear that he will not be sacking the two ministers.
Abela had said that he himself decided to remove Muscat from her role, and the issue was over a “€16,000” discrepancy in her salary.
The Standards in Public Life Committee is made up of Labour MPs Jonathan Attard and Andy Ellul, and PN MPs Ryan Callus and Mark Anthony Sammut, alongside the Chairman, the Speaker.