Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1529157
6 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 27 MARCH 2022 OPINION 2 maltatoday EXECUTIVE EDITOR KURT SANSONE ksansone@mediatoday.com.mt Letters to the Editor, MaltaToday, Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 E-mail: dailynews@mediatoday.com.mt Letters must be concise, no pen names accepted, include full name and address maltatoday | SUNDAY • 10 NOVEMBER 2024 Prime Minister ignoring his own benchmark Editorial IF Prime Minister Robert Abela adopts the same benchmark he used when asking Justyne Carua- na to resign in the last legislature, he should be asking Clayton Bartolo and Clint Camilleri to step away from Cabinet. But Abela seems to have set his own bench- mark aside and absolved the two politicians – the public apology Bartolo made is sufficient, he told us. The two ministers were found to have given Bartolo's girlfriend, later to become his wife, an 'unjustified' lucrative salary increase by engaging her as policy advisor for tourism-re- lated matters despite not having the qualifica- tions or expertise for the job. Indeed, in his investigation, Standards Com- missioner Joseph Azzopardi found that Aman- da Muscat had never penned a report or given written advice to either of the ministers de- spite being appointed 'advisor'. And despite having a new job title, she continued to work by and large as a private secretary for Barto- lo even when she was transferred to the Gozo Ministry under Camilleri. Muscat was paid very good money – she al- so saw her 'expertise allowance' increase to €20,000 from €15,000 when engaged by the Gozo Ministry – for a job she was not qualified for and which she effectively never performed. It is evident that the new job title and the sig- nificantly improved salary Muscat was afford- ed was the result of her involvement with Bar- tolo. There was no merit in her appointment. It was simply an excuse to give her a better pay packet while allowing her to continue doing her previous work as a private secretary. The Standards Commissioner was clear that even in positions of trust, it is crucial that the right people are chosen. Loyalty, an important quality when choosing persons of trust, should never be a substitute for competence. Whatever work Muscat did as private secre- tary – arranging meetings with stakeholders, coordinating their actions, taking care of the minister's appointment book – was not com- mensurate with the generous pay packet she received as a policy consultant. An objective analysis of the facts shows that this case is not much different from the one involving former education minister Justyne Caruana before the last general election. Caru- ana had been censored because she engaged her boyfriend to carry out a study on the sports school when he had no qualifications to car- ry out the job. Indeed, the report that he pro- duced under his name was compiled by a min- istry consultant. Caruana was eventually forced out of Cabi- net in December 2021 with the Prime Minister saying it was every MP's duty to shoulder re- sponsibility, especially those in the executive. By this same benchmark, Bartolo and Camill- eri should shoulder responsibility for their be- haviour and step down from Cabinet. Nonetheless, the ministers have chosen to ig- nore Abela's advice from 2021 and this seems fine with the Prime Minister. Both ministers said they will wait for the out- come of the discussion in parliament's Stand- ard's Committee. We all know how the discus- sion will end – the government MPs will say they are satisfied with the ministers' explana- tions and apologies and the Opposition MPs will demand resignations. It will be up to the Speaker to deliver the final verdict unless he abstains. Bartolo's apology does not even begin to con- vey a sense of remorse. It was a simple throw- away remark to give the Prime Minister some- thing to latch onto in his defence. The principal takeaway from the ministers' reactions is that life in Cabinet will continue as normal for them with no hint of political re- sponsibility being shouldered. Admittedly, not every misdemeanour or wrongdoing by ministers necessitates a resig- nation. But in this case, it was the Prime Min- ister himself who set a high benchmark with the Justyne Caruana case. And there was logic in doing so because it was a case of favouritism that involved abuse of public funds. It is attitudes like these that continue to erode people's trust in the political system. It is be- haviour like this that creates an atmosphere of impunity and as recent history shows us, this can easily be abused with dire consequences. Quote of the Week "I saw his apology, I saw the report in detail, and I think his apology is sufficient." Prime Minister Robert Abela absolving his tourism minister Clayton Bartolo in the wake of a damning ethics report that revealed how the latter's wife was given a lucrative job as policy consultant with two ministries but continued performing secretarial duties instead since she was not qualified for the job. MaltaToday 10 years ago 9 November 2014 Top security firm probed Over miserly wages FOREIGN workers are being made to work over 62 hours per week for a miserly hourly net wage of just over €3.60, MaltaToday has learned. Documents seen by MaltaToday show the extent of the precarious employment of for- eign workers in Malta, with some employees working for over 80 hours per week. Apart from working for longer hours and not being paid overtime according to the law, a number of employees were threat- ened and warned not to report the matter. A number of foreign workers, especially Eastern Europeans, are being sent to Mal- ta by agencies which strike agreements with Maltese companies, and contracts seen by MaltaToday show how Romanian nationals are lured to Malta by signing a pre-contract in Bucharest to work as a security agent / fire warder for 252 hours at €900 a month. Once these workers are flown over to Mal- ta, they sign a contract with a Maltese com- pany. But MaltaToday can confirm, after seeking legal advice, that the contracts are in breach of the Private Security Services Wage Regulation Order. The law stipulates that the minimum week- ly wage of €165.58, "shall be related to an av- erage of forty hours per week calculated ini- tially over a period of six consecutive weeks, and thereafter commencing on the follow- ing first Monday, provided that the hours of work shall not exceed forty-eight hours in any one week." A contract signed with the agency by one of the workers who contact- ed MaltaToday lays down that the employer shall pay the employee a net monthly salary of €900 for 252 hours payable after the 25th day of each month. ...