Powerful Keith Schembri led ‘shadow government’, Evarist Bartolo tells Caruana Galizia inquiry
Public inquiry into murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia continues this morning
Keith Schembri led a “shadow cabinet” during his tenure as prime minister Joseph Muscat’s chief of staff, Evarist Bartolo said.
The Foreign Minister - who was minister for education under Muscat’s government - said that Keith Schembri had “too much influence” and that there were “two levels of government.”
He was giving testimony on Wednesday during a sitting of the public inquiry into Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder.
“I had said that the influence of Keith Schembri was too much. The concentration of power was too great and not good for the country,” Bartolo told the inquiry board during his candid testimony.
The minister said that, despite having spoken to Muscat, Schembri, and Konrad Mizzi after the Panama Papers revelations came to light, none of them had reacted.
He lamented that no arraignments had taken place after the Panama Papers were published.
He underscored that Malta’s small size was a limitation in terms of investigating alleged corruption, and said “external oversight” was needed.
The minister called for “a national examination of conscience” and said public financing of parties was needed in order to prevent corruption caused by ties to big business.
The inquiry went on to disallow a question by Caruana Galizia family lawyer Jason Azzopardi on the composition of Schembri’s “shadow government.”
Today’s sitting also touched upon the hospitals deal, with Bartolo saying that the agreement with Vitals Global Healthcare had never been discussed in Muscat’s Cabinet, and that he had only gotten to know the details of it when the National Audit Office recently published its report.
Bartolo was the first government minister to testify in the public inquiry, but more ministers are due to take the witness stand in the future.
The next sitting is scheduled for Friday at 9:30am, when PN MEP David Casa will be testifying. Finance Minister Edward Scicluna is due to testify on 12 August, if he is available.
The public inquiry is tasked with, amongst other things, determining whether the State did all it could to prevent the Caruana Galizia murder from happening.
Caruana Galizia was murdered in a car bomb just outside her Bidnija home on 16 October 2017. Three men, George Degiorgio, Alfred Degiorgio and Vince Muscat, have been charged with carrying out the assassination, while Yorgen Fenech is charged with masterminding the murder.
Melvin Theuma, who acted as a middleman between Fenech and the three executors of the crime, was granted a presidential pardon last year to tell all. Theuma is currently receiving treatment in hospital for serious wounds he sustained, which the police said were self-inflicted.
The inquiry is led by retired judge Michael Mallia, former chief justice Joseph Said Pullicino and Judge Abigail Lofaro.