Clayton Bartolo makes forced apology in Parliament

Former tourism minister Clayton Bartolo has delivered a speech in Parliament in which he managed to squeeze an apology, as he was ordered to do by the Standards Committee.

Last November, the committee ruled that he was to apologise over an ethics breach involving his wife, Amanda Muscat. Last year, he had resigned from his post almost three weeks after a Standards Commissioner report found he breached ethics when employing his now wife as a consultant.

Despite public pressure, he had not resigned due to the damning report which found that his girlfriend at the time was given an unjustified salary for a job she was not qualified for, as the resignation came following another scandal.

Amanda Muscat received some €50,000 from a private firm suspected to be a kickback related to a Malta Tourism Authority (MTA) contract.

In Parliament, Bartolo dedicated the majority of his speech to his achievements as tourism minister, stating that he was given the post during the sector’s worst period due to the pandemic.

After squeezing in an apology, he stressed that the standard czar’s report never used the phrase “phantom job” or “fraud,” and boasted that it was a Labour government that introduced the role of the Standards Commissioner.

He then started listing a number of scandals associated with PN governments and decried the lack of action taken at the time. Bartolo also condemned personal attacks that “eroded my rights as a private citizen,” mentioning "attacks" on his family.