Amanda Muscat Pays 16K Salary Difference But PN Standards Committee Members Proposes Full Consultancy Earnings
Clayton Bartolo’s wife, Amanda Muscat, has paid back the €16,000 salary difference between her job as a ministerial consultant and her actual work as a private secretary.
However, PN Standards Committee members Mark Anthony Sammut and Ryan Callus proposed that Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri pay back the full amount paid by his ministry for a consultancy job that never happened. This would amount to around €45,000 – eight months out of the infamous €68,000 contract.
They further called for him to apologise to Parliament for paying a woman he “never emailed or received an email from, who did not attend the ministry and who never gave him any advice” during a Standards Committee meeting earlier today.
Muscat paid back the €16,000 difference she was earning as a private secretary to her husband and former minister Clayton Bartolo and the consultancy job (contracted at €68,000 a year) she was given within the Gozo ministry. This means that her income as a secretary was over €50,000.
Speaker Anglu Farrugia, as well as the other two PL MPs on the committee, disagreed with the proposal, meaning that this demand will not result in a recommended action by the Standards Committee.
In a social media post, Sammut explained that given that Camilleri and former minister Clayton Bartolo were found guilty of abusing their power and of violating ethical standards, the sanctions put forth by the committee should have been harsher.
Besides proposing a full repayment of the consultancy job and an apology, Sammut and Callus called for the ministers to be subject to a 30-day suspension from parliament, citing the parliamentary procedure of other countries like the UK.
“We should not have lower standards than others. The members of the Government did not agree with us.”
Sammut went on to warn that the behaviour of the government indicates that this is not an isolated case. He flagged that government ministers have been refusing to publish the identities of their consultants “for years” as well as the contracts they have.
“They only tell us that they hired them ‘according to the Manual of Procedure’. Even Amanda Muscat was recruited according to the Manual of Procedure.”
“If this is the way to recruit people according to the Manual, we have a lot to worry about how our money is being spent.”
Do you think Camilleri should pay the full €45,000?
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