Clayton Bartolo’s girlfriend, later to become wife, was given an “unjustified” salary increase as a policy consultant, a job she was not qualified for, an ethics investigation shows.
The investigation by the Standards Commissioner revealed that Amanda Muscat was promoted from private secretary to policy consultant at the tourism ministry despite not having specialised knowledge or qualifications to perform the new role.
She kept the same role of policy consultant with an even higher expertise allowance when joining the Gozo ministry after her job at the tourism ministry was terminated. The transfer to the Gozo ministry happened after she developed a romantic relationship with Bartolo.
Nonetheless, the investigation found that although Muscat was supposed to be working with and for the Gozo ministry, she continued acting as the tourism minister’s private secretary.
The Standards Commissioner found that Muscat penned no reports and gave no written opinions or advice as a consultant to either of the ministers, and her role was effectively one of coordinator between entities and stakeholders, apart from private secretary.
The mere change in her job nomenclature meant that Muscat benefitted from a substantial increase in her salary – which as policy consultant was pegged at the highest permitted level (Scale 3) – and given an expertise allowance of €15,000.
The expertise allowance was increased to €20,000 with no explanation why, when Muscat was subsequently engaged by the Gozo ministry.
The investigation kicked off on a request filed by Arnold Cassola, following a report by The Shift News on Muscat’s unorthodox work arrangements.
The Standards Commissioner refuted the claim that Muscat was paid for work she did not do but noted that on the basis of the work arrangements afforded to her, she was “effectively given a substantial wage increase that was not justified”.
The Standards Commissioner noted that although the manual regulating the engagement of persons of trust with the public service defines the role of policy consultant as a position of trust, this did not mean engaging someone who was unqualified for the job.
“Those appointed to roles financed by public funds, including persons of trust, are obliged to fulfill the duties pertaining to their role, and whoever appoints them is obliged to choose persons capable to fulfill those duties,” the commissioner said.
Muscat’s relationship with Bartolo developed after she started working at the tourism ministry. They eventually got married in July this year. The sequence of events suggests that Muscat’s initial engagement as a private secretary had nothing to do with their personal relationship.
The other accusation related to Minister Camilleri was that he allowed Muscat to skive on her work at the ministry. Camilleri testified that it was not his responsibility to oversee the daily functioning of employees and so could not be found responsible for breaching ethics.
Nonetheless, the Standards Commissioner found this explanation to be very flimsy given that the job of a policy consultant is intrinsically tied to that of the minister. A policy consultant’s job is automatically terminated if the minister that appointed them stops being a minister.
“It is inconceivable that a person so close to a minister, whose employment is directly dependent on the minister’s term in office, is not chosen by the minister or at the very least the engagement was not given the green light by the minister,” the Standards Commissioner noted.
The report found a lack of adequate safeguards against abuse in the Manual on Resourcing Policies and Procedures, which permanent secretaries are obliged to follow in the engagement of persons of trust.
The manual contains no criteria on the choice of policy consultants and how they should be renumerated. The Standards Commissioner said this creates a problem because there is no basis on which permanent secretaries can object to the appointment of policy consultants. The manual does not even contain an obligation to submit a CV when permanent secretaries file a formal request for engagement of policy consultants. Nonetheless, this obligation coupled with the need to obtain security clearance, are required for the recruitment of members of a minister’s secretariat.
The report was passed on to parliament’s Ethics Committee, which on Thursday afternoon decided to publish it in its entirety.
