Matthew Caruana Galizia: ‘Hello David Walliams, We’re Filing An FOI Request For Your Invoice To Malta’
Matthew Caruana Galizia and the Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation have announced that they will be filing a freedom of information (FOI) request to find out how much it cost to get comedian David Walliams to present the Malta Film Awards.
The Malta Film Awards was budgeted to cost around €400,000, which has left many members of the industry and taxpayers disgruntled. However, Film Commissioner Johann Grech has refused to disclose whether the event has gone over budget.
“Hello David Walliams, we’re filing an FOI request for your invoice to Malta, but I was wondering whether you could just cut to the chase and tell us how much you were paid to speak at what was turned into a party-political event,” Caruana Galizia said in a tweet.
In his tweet, Caruana Galizia both announced the filing of the FOI request, as well as left it in Walliams’ hands to “cut to the chase” and tell everyone how much he was really paid to speak at the event.
He also described the awards night as having turned into a party-political event.
Arnold Cassola has also called for the National Audit Office to investigate the costs of the awards night.
Film industry members described the €400,000 budget to the Film Awards as excessive, seeing as only €600,000 have been allocated to the entire annual budget for the national Screen Film Fund.
Many players within the industry had decided to boycott the event after the budget dedicated for the night emerged, leaving members of the industry disappointed as to why they have had to face poor funding.
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