Lying with Joseph
Imagine you’ve rented your apartment to a new tenant. For three years, he refused to pay rent. You tried everything to get him to pay. You asked him politely, sent him a letter, then warned him about possible legal action. Still, he refused. Finally, you took your case before a judge.
The judge spent two years considering the case. During that time, your tenant, finally and reluctantly, paid up. The judge concluded your tenant did nothing wrong because, after all, you got paid. But, for three years, you were denied your money. You’re baffled by the judge’s bizarre decision. But then you find out that your tenant had written a threatening intimidating letter to the judge, denigrating and abusing you for requesting to be paid.
That tenant is Robert Abela, that judge, Standards Commissioner Joseph Azzopardi.
For three long years, Abela fiercely concealed Joseph Muscat’s obscene termination package. For years, he deprived the nation of its right to know what perks the disgraced former prime minister was given. For months, Abela lied, to cover up for Muscat. Revealing the truth would have exposed Muscat for the liar he is.
Abela rejected three FOI requests over Muscat’s rotten deal, one by the Times of Malta and two by The Shift. He lied, claiming “no specific agreement exists”.
He stated there were “no records of any correspondence, e-mails or agreements, including informal ones, about the entitlements awarded to Muscat”. That’s another blatant lie. Muscat could never have been paid over €100,000 from the Treasury without written communication.
Abela repeatedly turned down parliamentary questions about Muscat’s payout, claiming “cabinet decisions cannot be divulged”.
Abela’s plan to keep Muscat’s package secret blew up in his face. In February 2022, the police raided Muscat’s Burmarrad residence. They also raided an office in Sa Maison. It became obvious to everyone that Muscat was using those government-owned offices. Abela was caught. Cornered, he admitted that Muscat was given that office for his private business.
But Abela adamantly refused to disclose further details about Muscat’s severance package, falsely claiming “details had already been given”. To shield Muscat, he lied brazenly: “All ministers and parliamentary secretaries who are no longer members of cabinet benefitted from the same scheme.”
Now a standards commissioner report has revealed the magnitude of Abela’s lies. Muscat was given three substantial benefits none of his predecessors were. He got a Sa Maison government office, fullystocked with computer, printer/scanner, landline and internet connection. He was given a second car for use by his wife, Michelle. And he was allowed to double his terminal allowance from €60,000 to €120,128.40.
Those special conditions were agreed upon by Muscat’s own cabinet on December 10, 2019, at the height of a massive political crisis that brought Muscat down. In the midst of the chaos, Muscat’s cabinet was busy ensuring that the man who deceived them and the whole country was given a massive undeserved reward out of taxpayers’ money.
Muscat knew his conditions were special. So did Abela. They both knew no other prime minister benefitted from those conditions.
But Muscat lied about it for months. He claimed that the “compensation I was given was created by a Nationalist government”. Big lie. The severance package conditions were changed twice during his premiership – in 2018 and on that fateful 2019 December night.
“My payout was in line with that given to my predecessors,” Muscat lied on Facebook. None of his predecessors were given the obscene package he received. “I was treated in the same way as Lawrence Gonzi… and Simon Busuttil.” Big lie.
Is there anything this man says that isn’t false? Muscat collected €120,128 in one lump sum. He was given not one but two cars. He has a fully-funded driver. His wife has two drivers fully funded by the State, seconded from the Cleansing and Maintenance Division to the Marigold Foundation. Muscat has a fully-stocked office for his personal use. He has fuel, insurance, licence and maintenance costs paid for his two cars.
He has a personal assistant, Mark Farrugia, who, instead of being paid on scale 6, as those of his predecessors, is paid at a far more generous scale 4. Muscat retained his diplomatic passport. Joseph and Michelle Muscat are costing the State over €150,000, besides that massive lump sum.
Muscat earned €482,000 in 2020 alone. Why are we paying for his printer and computer, his office, or his wife’s car? Why are we funding his private business?
Abela is complicit in this scam. He concealed Muscat’s package for years and lied repeatedly to cover up for him.
No wonder Abela was so furious when Arnold Cassola and Repubblika asked the commissioner to investigate Muscat’s perks. In a shockingly rude reply to the commissioner, Abela attacked Cassola and Repubblika: “The current complaint is not motivated by some love for the national interest but driven by political retaliation”, “I understand and sympathise with your position which the complainants involved are constantly intentionally putting you in. We’ve become familiar with their tactics.”
He then harangued the commissioner, lecturing him that he had no business investigating him – the case was timebarred, the commissioner cannot scrutinise cabinet decisions and “this case did not merit any investigation”.
Having concealed Muscat’s package for years, Abela shamelessly told the commissioner “there is full transparency, contrary to what is being alleged”.
What’s even more unbelievable is that the subdued commissioner agreed.
He exonerated Abela: “Lack of transparency issues were resolved through answers given on 14/3 and 17/4/2023.” That’s three years late, actually 38 months in which Abela deprived us of our right to information.
Abela is now desperately back-pedalling. He pledged to implement the commissioner’s advice to stop cabinet taking secret decisions about their own severance packages. Abela should take the rest of the commissioner’s advice and get his cabinet to withdraw Muscat’s use of the Sa Maison office, reclaim the extra €60,000 he was not entitled and withdraw his second car. And the commissioner should grow a spine.
“Robert Abela rejected three FOI requests over Joseph Muscat’s rotten deal
Kevin Cassar surgery.
is a
professor
of